
9k^^-<^A~* 








^v 




"Wise Men 



From 



The East." 





/ 



C MPLIMENTS OF 

PRESIDENT MORRISON. 



'Wise Men from the East." 



A MEMORIAL CHRONICLE 



OF THE VISIT OF THE 



National Congregational Council 

TO SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI, 



ON THE OCCASION OF 



LAYING THE CORNER-STONE 



CHAPEL OF DRURY COLLEGE, 

NOVEMBER 16, 1880. 



PUBLISHED BY 

DIRECTION OF THE AUTHORITIES OF 

DRURY COLLEGE. 



INTEODUCTOEY. 



The Fifth National Triennial Council of the Congregational 
Churches of the United States assembled in Pilgrim Church, in the 
city of St. Louis, on the morning of November 11, 1880, and 
adjourned finally on the evening of the 15th of that month. 

This was a "high convocation" of the churches, in the large 
numbers present, in the vast distances which they had traversed 
from the extremes of the country to convene, in the distinguished 
talent and piety of the delegates, in the unflagging interest of all 
their proceedings, and in the important results of their delibera- 
tions. 

It was the first convention of these historic churches, descend- 
ants of the Puritans in England and the Pilgrim Church and State 
of the Mayflower, held in the Valley of the Mississippi, — a fact 
in itself of prime significance, whether you look back over the 
course of past events of national importance, or forward toward 
the opening future. The assembly consisted of about two hun- 
dred and fifty representative men, over which presided Rev. Henry 
M. Dexter, D.D., the historian of the denomination, and editor 
of its oldest journal. 

When the announcement was made that the Council of 1880 
would meet in St. Louis, the management of Drury College, at 
Springfield, Missouri, determined to utilize for the benefit of edu- 
cational and religious interests in the Southwest this expected 
visit of so many Eastern gentlemen prominent in all noble philan- 
thropic enterprises. Most of them had never before crossed the 
Great River ; very few of them had any distinct knowledge of the 
country bej^ond or at all comprehended the almost limitless and 
inviting opportunity offered them for Christian and patriotic 
activit}^ in the vast spaces south-west from the confluence of the 
Missouri with the Mississippi ; they had long been giving the 
means of sending the Bible and religious literature to the destitute 



4 " WISE MEN FROM THE EAST. 

throughout this region; they had helped to establish here and 
there churches and schools ; and to the unstinted and unceasing 
liberality of some of them the South- West was indebted for the 
founding of Drury College. 

We would, therefore, invite these "Wise men from the East " to 
visit the South- West, — to look in upon our work, and see the use 
to which we were putting their money in college-founding, in erect- 
ing churches, in preaching the gospel, in establishing Sunda}^- 
schools. We needed their counsel. We also thought that a 
journey of three hundred and sixty miles from St. Louis, through 
Missouri and the Indian Territory to Vinita, or a thousand miles 
farther into Texas, or an equal distance to the seat of early Span- 
ish domination in New Mexico, might quicken the pulses of their 
patriotism, and enlarge the vision of their obligation to strive to 
u bring all their country to Christ." 

SlWe laid our plans before the sagacious and public-spirited Gen- 
eral Manager of the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway Com- 
pany (Capt. C. W. Rogers) who at once favored them, and 
offered free passage to Springfield and return, and to all other 
stations on the line, to as many members of the Council as he 
"could haul on the regular evening express." He supposed he 
could take one hundred in addition to the usual passenger list. 

Accordingly, some weeks previous to the meeting of the National 
Council, circular invitations offering the privileges of the proposed 
" Excursion to the Southwest" to one hundred guests were sent 
to all known to be accredited as delegates to the Council, except 
those from the State of Missouri. A few accepted the invitation 
by letter, but when the Council convened the prospect was not 
encouraging for a large company. As the sessions of the Council 
drew toward their close, however, the popularity of the "excur- 
sion ' ' increased, and it became evident that the train could not 
take all who offered. The managers then had the unpleasant task 
of selecting their guests, endeavoring to show preference for those 
from the greatest distance, and especially from New England. 

The ' ' itinerary ' ' of the excursion included a night run to 
Springfield, two hundred and forty miles, devoting the morning of 
the next day to visiting Drury College and the City of Springfield, 
at half-past eleven lay the corner-stone of the new College Chapel, 
dine together at the college refectory in Fairbanks Hall, hold a 



< 'WISE MEN FROM THE EAST. 

mass-meeting in the interest of education at the Opera House in 
the evening, the next morning resume the journey to Vinita, in 
the Indian Territory, one hundred and twenty-five miles further 
south-west, or to the famous Eureka Springs, in Arkansas, or to 
the lead mines at Joplin, Mo., or five hundred jmiles westward 
to Wichita, in Western Kansas, the terminus of the railway, — 
— returning from these points at the convenience of the travellers. 
The passes issued were "good" till December 31, 1880, and 
would carry holders to any point on the road as many times, up to 
the date mentioned, as they might wish. The railway authorities 
desired these excursionists to see as much as possible of the coun- 
try and the people along their line. 

Aided by the liberality of the Pullman Car Company in reduc- 
ing the usual traffic charges, the college was able to place at the 
disposal of the guests four of that company's fine sleeping 
coaches. More coaches would have been provided but for the im- 
possibility of hauling a heavier train over the steep grades (ninety- 
nine feet to the mile) of a portion of the line. Into these four 
coaches were crowded about one hundred and fifty gentlemen and 
ladies for the night's trip to Springfield. The train " pulled out " 
from the Union Depot in St. Louis at 9 p. m. November 15th, and 
arrived without accident at Springfield at 8 o'clock the next 
morning, not an hour behind time. 

It is safe to say that no passenger train ever bore westward 
form St. Louis a more weighty freight. Here were a score of 
learned doctors of divinity, half as manj^ distinguished editors, 
many scholars, ministers, college presidents and professors, 
lawyers, merchants, and men prominent in politics and great 
manufacturing and other business enterprises in all parts of the 
land. It was a noble company, the like of which is rarely seen in 
any place, and least of all on a flying railway train. Jestingly, 
but with truth, one excursionist, in admiration of his companions, 
declared that the train carried " the very cream of the Council." 
It is not invidious to say that it left no better material behind. 

The train was conducted by the Superintendent of the Road, 
Nichols, in person, while Rev. Robert West, Home Missionary 
Superintendent of Missouri, assisted by Dr. C. L. Goodell (who 
had just spoken to the Council those masterly and tender words 
of farewell), Gen. A. B. Lawrence, of Warsaw, N. Y., and Presi- 



dent Morrison, managed the Pullman cars and " conducted " the 
excursion. 

No doubt the discomforts of that night on the rail were many 
and great ; yet a brighter and merrier crowd is rarely seen. Good- 
fellowship and a disposition to make the most possible out of the 
occasion prevailed. None complained. 

On arrival at Springfield, carriages in waiting took the guests to 
the College, to the residences of the principal citizens, and to the 
hotels, for entertainment. An hour later many of the strangers 
were devoutly joining with the College faculty and students in 
morning worship at the Chapel. 



LAYING THE CORIEE-STONE, 



At half-past 11 o'clock a. m., the hour set for the ceremony of 
laying the corner-stone of the new college chapel, a driving snow- 
storm from the north had set in, Missourians suggesting that the 
Northern visitors had brought the piercing cold and untimely 
snow with them from their hyperborean homes. Notwithstanding 
the wintry blast and snow, a large company of citizens, students, 
and guests gathered in the south-west corner of the college 
campus, around the excavation from which the future chapel is 
to rise. Strains of music from Professor A. B. Brown's Con- 
servatory Band strove in vain to cheer up the shivering assem- 
blage. After prayer by Rev. A. H. Bradford, of New Jersey, 
Hon. C. E. Harwood, of Springfield, one of the earliest and most 
liberal benefactors of the college, as chairman of the Building 
Committee, stepped forward, quickly placed the copper box con- 
taining the usual mementoes in the wall, and lowered over it the 
heavy corner-stone. This stone is of lime rock from the valley 
near by, polished on its western face, and inscribed simply with 
the figures "1880." 

This done, Dr. T. U. Manner, of the college faculty, in a few 
apt sentences declared the stone well and truly laid, plumb and 
stable — worthy to sustain the noble edifice whose chief corner it was. 

Then, driven by the fierce cold and rapidly accumulating snow, 
a hasty adjournment was made to the rooms in '• Preparatory 
Building," used for a college chapel, to complete the exercises 
which were intended to be given in the open air. This place was 
soon packed with a multitude, for whom not even standing room 
could be found. Here the Rev. C. L. Goodell, D.D., of St. Louis, 
in behalf of the Board of Trustees of the College, took the exer- 
cises in charge. His address of welcome was altogether unique 
and unreportable. In five minutes his words of warm greeting 
and contagious sympathy had melted away the chill engendered 
by the freezing atmosphere without, and guest and host felt at home 



8 "WISE MEN FKOM THE EAST." 

and that it was good to be there. Dr. Goodell retrieved the day, 
that but for his genial presence and ready wit had well nigh been 
lost. 

Mr. Harwood then made the following statement respecting the 
proposed chapel, speaking in behalf of the Building Commit- 
tee: — 

Brethren beloved, and ye mothers and daughters, who have 
gathered here on these mountain heights to take account of our 
stewardship, to weigh and measure what has been accomplished 
of this great work of yours, the founding of a school of Christian 
learning, which you have committed to our hands ; to you, with 
grateful expression for the inspiration of your presence, that 
cheers our hearts and stays up our heads to-day, we say, all hail ! 

Seven years ago the twenty-eighth day of July last, a few of us 
gathered on these grounds, where the Preparatory Building now 
stands, to break ground for the foundation of the first building 
erected for the use of this college. This building was opened for 
students on the 25th of September following. The building soon be- 
came too small to meet the wants of the institution for class-rooms 
and a room for general assemblies. We appealed to the friends 
of the college for the means to build. Only one response came. 
Years of financial depression were upon us, crippling the resources 
of many of our best friends. With difficulty could we meet the 
demands for current expenses ; thick clouds covered us. Some of 
the friends of the institution, predicting its speedy collapse, were 
preparing for its funeral, but, upheld by an unwavering faith that 
God was in this work and therefore it could not fail, we held on. 
And just here it may not be out of place to say that there was 
one person to whom, in our hours of greatest need, we never ap- 
pealed in vain. Others' gifts may have been larger, but none so 
timely as his. I refer to S. M. Edgell, of St. Louis. To relieve 
pressing needs we erected the temporary building now used by 
the Conservatory of Music, and have made use of the church edi- 
fice of the M. E. Church South, the Opera House, and the dining- 
room of Fairbanks Hall for our general assemblies and anniver- 
saries. We have now outgrown these. They are too strait for 
the needs of the college. For commencement exercises, for public 
lectures, for college religious services, for the Conservatory of 



"WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 9 

Music, for needed class room, for a great center of college life, we 
long needed the proposed building. 

To illumine this darkness light came out of the East, as it 
usually does, and our hearts were made glad by the offer of $5,000 
from Frederick Marquand, of Connecticut, provided this amount 
should be duplicated from other sources. This voice from Con- 
necticut was soon taken up by the old Bay State (God bless the 
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, that great mother and nurse of 
all Christian enterprise, whose creed for substance of doctrine and 
belief is to lay foundations for all Christian work), and Mr. Mar- 
quand' s generous donation was matched by another $5,000 check, 
and with this money in hand it was deemed wise by the trustees 
of the college to commence this edifice, with our records for- 
bidding the spending of a dollar thereon that is not in bank to pay 
bills as they may be incurred. 

The architect's estimate of the cost of the proposed chapel is 
$25,000. With the $10,000 in hand we hope to enclose it, and 
to receive means in the meantime from the willing hearts at 
least to complete and furnish the basement, to meet the pres- 
ent pressing needs of the college for class-rooms and a suitable 
room for week-day chapel exercises. This we purpose to do 
during the present college year, putting in the foundations during 
the open portions of the fall and winter, accumulating on the 
ground the material for the superstructure, and getting in a state 
of readiness to push the work to completion with the opening of 
spring, limited only by the means at our command. The dimen- 
sions of the building will be 60 by 100 feet; the basement, 14 
feet in height, will be divided into six class-rooms, and one room 
30 by 60 feet for week-day chapel exercises. Above this will be 
the auditorium, capable of seating twelve hundred persons, for 
college use at its anniversaries, its public lectures, and general 
assemblies. 

Brethren, this work is yours as well as ours. It is a glorious 
work ; it is a far-reaching work ; it is an enduring work. To-day 
a torch lighted here is held aloft in the Ottoman Empire. To-day 
a daughter of this institution, under the shadow of the Wasach, 
is giving a fair and noble life to the service of the Master. To- 
day many sons of this Alma Mater are proclaiming the words of 
eternal life. To-morrow others with swift feet shall seek the isles 



10 " WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 

of the sea for the uplifting and redemption of man. Through all 
the ages to come shall this institution stand, through the blessing 
of God, for the healing of the nations. God's work moves on- 
ward to higher and better things. On the ground where you 
stand but yesterday ran the rifle-pits and trenches, where brother 
sought the life of brother for its destruction. To-day we dig 
these trenches, lay these foundations, and rear these walls to 
seek the life of brother for its eternal well-being. And as we 
rear these walls, nmy we, with clearer vision, see that they do not 
stand alone for so much stone and brick and mortar, for into 
them are builded our lives, our hearts, and our prayers. 

Men shall fail and pass away, but this work shall not fail. Ye 
who are building your lives into Oberlin, Olivet, Beloit, Carleton, 
Grinnell, Tabor, and Drury, shall never die. A broader and fuller 
life awaits you as the ages pass. 

After spiritedly singing a hymn from Robinson's "Spiritual 
Songs," — the book of worship used by the College, — in which 
students and visitors and citizens joined with enthusiasm, Dr. 
Goodell introduced President Morrison, who gave a sketch of the 
origin and progress of Druiy College thus far. The following is 
what the President intended to say, though, as he spoke extempo- 
raneously, not precisely what he did say : 

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE COLLEGE. 

In the records of the Springfield, Missouri, Association of Con- 
gregational Churches occur the following entries : 

"Springfield, March 23d, 1872. 

' ' Saturday Evening Session. 

" Rev. H. B. Fry, of Carthage, offered the following: 

' ' Whereas, The rapid increase of population in the South- West 
urgently calls for a large increase of pastors, teachers, and 
thoroughly educated men in every calling ; and 

" Whereas, We believe that this want can be most practically 
and economically supplied by educating them on the ground 
where they are needed : 

" Therefore, resolved, That a committee of three be appointed 
to consider the best means for establishing, and the proper plan 



"WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 11 

for locating, a college within the limits of this Association, at 
its next meeting. 

"On motion, the resolution was adopted, and the following 
persons were constituted the committee, viz. : Charles E. Har- 
wood of Springfield, Rev. H. B. Fry of Carthage, and W. I. 
Wallace of Lebanon." 

' ' Neosho, Saturday Evening, ) 
"September 14th, 1872, J 

' ' The college committee now presented their report, which was 
accepted and adopted as a whole. The following are the resolu- 
tions so recommended and adopted : 

"Resolved, 1st, That the original committee appointed by this 
Association be increased by the addition of L. L. Allen of Peirce 
City, and Rev. H. D. Lowing of Neosho. 

" Resolved. 2d, That this committee, so increased, be requested 
to call a convention of the churches to meet two months from this 
date, at such place as the committee may decide upon, to take 
into consideration the propositions that may be made by that 
time. 

"•Resolved, 3d, That this convention may consist of a pastor 
and one delegate (or, in the absence of a pastor, of two dele- 
gates) from each of the churches, — the vote, however, to be 
taken by churches. 

" Resolved, 4th, That, in the meantime and before the meeting 
of our State Association, our Secretary be instructed to inform 
said Association, and also the College Aid Society [American Col- 
lege and Theological Society] of our plans and prospects. 

"Resolved, 5th, That the convention herein provided for 
ought to be guided in its action by considerations of the amount 
of money pledged, the prospect for the supply of students, and 
the general disposition of the people among whom it shall be 
located towards such an institution. 

" Bro. Fry was, on motion, requested to act as chairman of 
College Committee." 

This is the record of the origin, prima origo, of Drury College. 
Here is the germ of what the institution is to-day, and of what it 
shall become in all the generations of its future life. The repre- 
sentatives of a dozen missionary New England churches, just 



12 " WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 

planted in this strange soil, all poor, only one capable of self-sup- 
port, altogether containing only a few score members, in humble 
faith and prayer resolve to found a Christian College, that the 
South-West may not lack ' ' a godly and a learned ministry ' ' and 
' ' teachers and thoroughly trained men in every calling. ' ' The 
purpose and the faith were sublime — worthy of their Puritan 
ancestry, which nearly two centuries and a half before planted the 
germ of Harvard College in the sands beside the eastern seas. 

In pursuance of the foregoing resolutions, application was made 
to the State Association, at its annual meeting the next month, for 
recognition and support. A practical difficulty confronted this 
appeal for recognition — the fact that the Association had already 
pledged its favor to one college in the State, and that the College 
Society was apparently prohibited by an established policy from 
extending aid to a second college in any State. 

However, the zeal of the brethren from the South-West prevailed 
with the association so far that a committee to investigate was 
appointed, consisting of Rev. T. M. Post, D.D., and Rev. Charles 
Peabody of St. Louis. 

Late in October of that year the College Society was to hold its 
annual meeting in Jacksonville, 111., in connection with Illinois 
College, one of the Society's oldest children. Desiring to meet 
the College Society people again before my expected removal to 
California, I resolved to attend this meeting. As I was leaving 
my home in Michigan I took a copy of the Advance to read on 
the cars. It contained an item, written from Neosho, Mo., which 
told of the effort making by the churches to establish a college in 
South-West Missouri, and how the people of Neosho had already 
subscribed nearly tivelue thousand dollars to secure its location at 
that place. 

At Jacksonville the well-known policy of the College Society 
to restrict its favor to one college in a State was pretty fully 
discussed, and with the evident purpose to forestall expected 
applications from a second college in Iowa and from a proposed 
school in South-West Missouri. Neither Tabor nor South-West 
Missouri had any one present to say a good word for them in 
reply to pretty severe strictures from representatives of Iowa and 
Thayer. I ventured to leave the duties of secretary of the meet- 
ing long enough to say that I thought the policy of the society 



" WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 13 

correct in general, but should be flexible in its application, and 
allow of a second beneficiary in a State where extent of territory 
or other circumstances might seem wisely to demand it, remind- 
ing gentlemen that the great usefulness of Oberlin had, after long 
delay, compelled recognition, though only thirty miles distant 
from Western Reserve, and that Tabor and South- West Mis- 
souri, full of the zeal of Oberlin, might, by and by, by their 
superior growth and importance, compel the recognition which 
some were now seeking to forestall and prevent. 

The words were spoken only in the interest of fair play, but 
their utterance had interested me in the proposed enterprise here. 
From Jacksonville I came to St. Louis, and inquired of Dr. Post 
about the Neosho project. He said he was a committee to visit 
u the brethren " at their expected college meeting in November; 
that he could not well go, because of other engagements ; would 
be glad if I would go in his stead, and tell him what I found on 
my return. About the middle of November I received, at my 
home in Michigan, a message from Dr. Post informing me that 
the proposed college convention of the churches would assemble 
at Peirce City on the 19th, and requesting me to attend. By 
constant travel I could only reach Peirce City on the morning of 
the 20th. On my arrival, the convention had already adjourned 
to the 4th of March, 1873, to give the people of the several 
places seeking for the location of the proposed school time to 
canvass for funds. I met several of the departing delegates, 
and among the rest two who had been students in my classes at 
Oberlin many years before. I visited Neosho, and conferred 
there with Rev. H. D. Lowing, pastor of the Congregational 
Church, whose well-directed zeal had aroused the enthusiasm of 
the citizens of that place, of every church and party, for the 
proposed college. I spent Sunday here in Springfield, conferring 
with friends of the college-movement, and, on leaving for home, 
gave them the assurance that friends, whom I represented, could 
be depended on to furnish $50,000 for the proposed college, if 
citizens of Springfield would furnish an equal amount. 

Returning to Michigan, I laid the matter before Mr. Drury 
and other friends, explaining to them the great, wide field in 
the South- West then vacant of schools of a high order, needing 
and desiring the benefits of a Christian college. I asked Mr. 



14 "WISE MEN FROM THE EAST.' 

Drury to contribute to the enterprise one-half of the $50,000 
needed, and to allow his friends, in commemoration of the ser- 
vices of a life-time devoted to building up a Christian college in 
Michigan, when the Missouri college enterprise should be fairly 
inaugurated, to call it by his own name. After mature considera- 
tion Mr. Druiy assented, stipulating that his gift should be in 
property of the estimated value of $25,000, to be controlled by 
the nascent college at organization, or to be redeemed by himself 
in cash, as his abilitj T should allow. He also stipulated that the 
name "Drury College," now honored by many friends in this 
and other States, should be regarded as a memorial of Albert 
Fletcher Drury, his only son and child, dying in 1863, a young 
man of rare nobility and excellence, to whom this property, now 
dedicated to Christian education in the South- West, would right- 
fully have belonged. Thus, as ever of the good, b ' He being dead, 
yet speaketh." 

The winter of 1872-3 was in some respects a memorable one for 
this good city. The people were then stirred in the interest of 
college education, I venture to say, as never before, and as they are 
never, perhaps, likely to be again. A grand effort was making to 
raise here by private subscription the large sum of $50,000, which 
done, it was expected that the proposed college would find per- 
manent residence here. Numerous public meetings were held, can- 
vassing committees appointed, who daily and persistently traversed 
these streets and solicited everybodj 7 who had property, and many 
who had not, to pledge themselves for "the college." The interest 
in the project rose to fever-heat. It was the subject of the. town 
gossip, and the staple topic for newspaper items. And the prime 
excitor and director in all this popular enthusiasm was the Rev. 
James H. Harwood, D. D., then pastor of the Congregational 
Church 3^onder by the railway, and the founder, under God, of 
most that is called by the name of Congregationalism in the 
South- West. At last, as the hour pointed toward the "Ides of 
March," Mr. Harwood wrote me that success was won. 

It is no disparagement of the public spirit of the excellent 
people of this place to s&y that the task self-assumed by Mr. Har- 
wood was an arduous one. At the outset no one but himself 
believed he could succeed. And now, with years of experience 
in similar effort behind me, considering the difficulties that con- 



15 

fornted him at the inception of his undertaking, I wonder that he 
did succeed. 

On the fourth day of March, 1873, the adjourned meeting of the 
convention of the churches was held at Peirce City to make a 
final decision as to the location of the proposed college. I was 
present by invitation. Neosho reported a large increase in her 
previous heavy bid for the school. Carthage reported nothing 
definitely accomplished. Springfield appeared with a pledge of 
money and real estate from citizens and from our liberal railway 
company, to the amount of nearly $58,000. The vote on location 
was taken by churches, and Springfield won by one-half of one 
vote. 

By the unanimous vote of the convention I was requested to 
take the future conduct of the college enterprise in charge. 

On the 29th of the same month I was in Springfield again, 
when I presented a draft for the constitution of the proposed 
college, previously prepared in my study at Mattoon, Illinois. 
The constitution was adopted by the friends of the movement, a 
board of thirteen trustees appointed, of whom eight have con- 
tinued in office by re-election to the present time, and the enter- 
prise fairly launched. The school was first' organized under the 
title of " Springfield College." Owing to some alleged legal in- 
formality in effecting the organization, the work was done over on 
the twenty-ninth day of July following, and on the twenty-ninth 
day of December of the same year the name was finally changed 
to the title now so well known and so well beloved. 

We had at first proposed purchasing the public school building 
just east of us in which to " open " the " College," but, unexpect- 
ed obstacles intervening, the trustees decided to build. So, about 
the 1st of August, a few of us, led by Mr. Drury, met here un- 
der the oaks, selected the site for our first college building, and 
then in humble prayer consecrated the ground, the structures that 
should thereafter arise, and a school of learning that should find 
its home in these structures, to Almighty God and the service of 
His church. Then Mr. Drury seized a shovel and lifted the first 
earth from the excavation for the substructure of the building in 
which we now sit. 

Seven or eight weeks later, — Thursday, September 25th, — we 
' ' opened school ' ' in this room, the freshly plastered walls drip- 

2 



16 " WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 

ping with moisture, and the builders, with trowel and hammer, 
still holding undisputed possession of all other parts of the 
structure. We had advertised that the school would on that 
day "take up," to use a local phrase, and it did! 

No great nourish of trumpets accompanied this inauguration of 
the "college." In fact, but little popular interest was taken in 
our work at the time. The former enthusiasm of the people had 
largely died out. Their "great expectations" as to the opening 
importance of the college had not been met. The first building 
was too modest. We three teachers, then constituting the "col- 
lege faculty," had certainly failed, I am sorry to confess, deeply 
to impress the popular mind. In fact, I think many looked upon 
the college enterprise as a pre-doomed failure, and therefore did 
not care veiy strongly to commit themselves to its doubtful for- 
tunes. We organized with thirty-nine scholars, taking down their 
names in their seats as thirty years before I had enrolled the 
pupils in my first district school among the far-away hills of New 
Hampshire. 

As the scholars gathered that afternoon it was amusing to 
observe the hesitancy and apparent distrust of some of them. 
These stopped at the outer door, and peered suspiciously around 
the door-post, by and by entered, slowly ascended the stairs, and 
then doubtingly took seats here, keeping the while their eyes 
fixed questioningly on the ' ' Yankee ' ' teachers before them. 

But we had excellent material in the ranks of those forty 
scholars save one, — I have rarely known better. Quite a num- 
ber continued with us for full five years, until they had nobly 
won the highest honors which the 3 r oung college could bestow. 

The "college faculty" then consisted of George H. Ashley, 
A. B., recently of Olivet College, a man of excellent scholarship 
and unusual aptness to teach, and whose four years of subsequent 
service here has left an impress on the scholarship and life of this 
school never to be effaced ; Mr. Paul Roulet, native of the same 
parish by the Swiss lake that gave to America our great Agassiz, 
and still in active service here, and myself. Before the first year 
ended Miss Mary F. Carkener, a teacher in the St. Louis public 
schools, completed the college quartette. She also gave to the 
young school the unstinted sendee of four years. 

It may be well, on this occasion, to recall some of the sharp 



"WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 17 

crises through which we have passed during our infancy of seven 
years Naturally these have been chiefly money crises, for if other 
grave difficulties have at any time arisen they have had their origin 
not in the abundance of that "root of all evil," but in the ex- 
treme lack of it. 

At organization we had subscriptions and promises which aggre- 
gated over $100,000 for the sustenance of our enterprise. We 
thought this a very good start. But alas, the simultaneous failure 
of Jay Cooke & Co., and the commercial catastrophe that swept the 
country afterwards, shrivelled these paper resources and our hopes. 
In cash value the college has not to this day realized more than 
fifty per cent of the aggregate just stated. A friend had pledged 
$10,000 toward the endowment of the President's chair, but before 
the school had fairly organized he was reduced to financial bank- 
ruptcy. Many local subscriptions had four years to run, with 
annual payments. Long before the four years ended, some of these 
subscribers had been compelled to remove from the place in quest 
of bread for their families. In general, it is but just to say, these 
failures to keep promises to the proposed school were the' result of 
hard necessity. Some will yet be fulfilled, probably, as the im- 
proved circumstances of subscribers shall allow. 

Thrice in our history, the college has been threatened with suit 
at law on account of unpaid construction bills and loans, and 
once judgment was rendered on a bill by default and execution 
against the property ordered. This last was during the first six 
months of the school. 

In the spring of 1874 it was determined to build a boarding- 
hall for young ladies. The school, as yet, had no center, no home. 
The community were disappointed by the meagre external outfit of 
the college. They had expected, justly or unreasonably, the erec- 
tion of fine buildings, whose architectural pretensions would dignify 
their city. This plain little building, thrown together in six weeks' 
time, was all we had to show. To meet this demand for a home 
for lady students and to remove any just grounds for local dis- 
appointment and complaint, we determined to build and to build 
well. Part of the old subscriptions in Springfield were transferred 
and the time of payment shortened, and with other pledges here 
and in St. Louis we had about $11,000 in sight with which to 
erect a hall costing $30,000. The walls were thrown up, roofed, 



18 "WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 

and part of the basement completed, with a debt of $5,000 and 
needing $10,000 to $15,000 to finish the work. The prospect was 
dark. Repeated efforts among friends had begun to weary them. 
Some shook their heads, and predicted failure. One evening at 
dusk, in St. Louis, as I was about to enter my hotel after a fruit- 
less search for money all day about the business-houses of the 
Great City, the pastor of one of the churches there met me, asked 
me to accompany him to the Mercantile Library near by, took me 
to a retired alcove, and then told me that a noble son of New Eng- 
land, invalided in London, across the sea, had heard our cry for 
help and would furnish $15,000 for the completion of the hall ! 
Was it unmanly, at these unlooked-for tidings, to weep a flood of 
grateful tears. 

A message home called the Faculty and the resident trustees to 
a special session the next da}- in the dining-room of the half com- 
pleted hall. When I entered, the full ranks of my colleagues wore 
grave, apprehensive countenances. How were those grave looks 
exchanged for beaming joy when they heard the tidings from 
across the sea. Capt. G. M. Jones, a member of the Executive 
and Building Committees then, as now, voiced the grateful 
prayer of all present to Him whose are the silver and the gold, 
and in whose hand are the hearts of men ! 

The policy of expending so much money in the erection of a 
building so early in our career has been questioned. My own 
conviction, strengthened by the experience of later years, is un- 
wavering, that the building of Walter Fairbanks Hall at that 
time saved the institvtion from ruin. The comely and commo- 
dious structure convinced all the doubtful that the college had 
come to stay. It allayed local complaints. It concentrated and 
solidified local attachment. Henceforth we had an attracting 
centre, a college home, a springing college life. 

In the winter of 1876-7, another and sharper crisis came. We 
had little endowment, but we did have a steadily growing debt, 
partly from failure to receive expected funds, partly from inability 
to turn lands into cash, partly from an enlarging corps of instruc- 
tors to meet the demands of rapidly growing patronage. Other 
troubles vexed and weakened us, about which, in this presence, 
nothing further should be said. 

I went East for help, knowing well that failure in the quest 



"WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 19 

meant personal failure for me in the college. For six weary 
weeks I daily paced the streets of New York in vain. The 
friends of former years had removed or were now poor, by the 
vicissitudes of business, and to secure new friends was a work of 
time. All this time I sought help for the college by simple force 
of will, as if the work were solely my own. Finally, in despair, 
I came to see that the work, if righteous, was not mine at all, but 
God's, of whom I was only a servant, subject to his instructions 
and his will. I gave up all anxiety for any personal success, and at 
last felt an indescribable rest and peace in singing in my heart the 
familiar words of the Moody and Sankey song : k 4 Oh to be noth- 
ing, nothing, ' ' etc. 

In this spirit I went to Boston, and money for the relief of the 
college came without the asking ! A friend temporarily residing 
in Reading, Massachusetts, invited me to spend Sunday with him. 
The Rev. W. H. Willcox, D. D., pastor of the Bethesda Church, 
in that village, to that day a total stranger, hearing I was in town, 
called and invited me to* meet him at his study the next day. 
I complied, and the pecuniary result of that interview to this 
college-founding in the South-West is already $55,750! 

I need not detail how the prospect of this great gift has strength- 
ened us in our work, helped us to pay our debts, put courage in 
the heart of fainting friends, scattered the Scotchman's "three 
church D's " (Debt, Difficulty, Devil) from our horizon, and given 
the college stabilit}" and growing repute. 

We have been willing to be known as the "New England Col- 
lege of the South- West," not as standing for any theory in the- 
ology, or any particular ecclesiastical connection, but rather as 
indicating well-understood methods of teaching, and a somewhat 
definite standard of culture. We have believed this would com- 
mend our work to the judgment of those who must furnish most 
of our resources, and, at the same time, not permanently preju- 
dice the institution in the estimation of our patronage here. 

Most of the instructors employed in the college have been of 
New England origin or training. This has been quite as much 
a matter of necessity as of choice. New England is full of 
admirably qualified teachers, seeking situations of usefulness. A 
surplus of such instructors is, naturally, less likely to be found 
in the newer and less densely peopled portions of the country. 



20 "WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 

Besides, the standard of culture sought, the intellectual stamp 
which we wished our work to bear from its infancy^ could best be 
secured by homogeneity of education, taste, and aims in our Col- 
lege Faculty. 

To a very large measure, this work has received the favorable 
consideration of the people of the South- West. Coming as most 
of us did from the North and East, some degree of prejudice 
toward the school would have been natural, and not unreasonable. 
It is only the truth to say that evidences of this feeling toward 
us have alwa}^s been few and far between. The great liberahty 
of the people of Springfield at the start, of which I have already 
spoken, is proof of this. The steady and rapid growth and widen- 
ing of patronage, until thirty or forty counties of Missouri and 
fifteen other States and Territories have been represented on our 
catalogue of students, and the welcome which j r ou, gentlemen of 
the Land and the Church of the Pilgrims, have to-day received 
from citizens of Springfield, are further proofs of the same fact. 
With the more intelligent people of the South- West and of the 
State, the college is held in honor — quite as high a degree of 
honor, probably, as our merits warrant. 

At our first anniversary, half of the people of the city and the 
second leading newspaper did not seem to know the fact of col- 
lege or college anniversary. Our friend who presides here at this 
hour came from St. Louis and delivered our first ' ' Address to 
the College Literary Societies," his audience scarcely half filling 
a small church, and his address was ignored by our enterprising (?) 
papers of the time. Now, when " Commencement Week" comes 
round, we cannot find a hall in the city that will accommodate the 
crowds who hurry to the fifteen or twenty different college exer- 
cises during the week. " Commencement " is now a yearly epoch 
in Springfield social life. And now when it is announced that 
the pastor of Pilgrim Church is to speak here, the Opera-House is 
packed, despite an admission fee at the door. 

The results of our work, while worthy of no boasting, are 
honorable for so young a school. In fact, to have survived 
the terrible financial }^ears following our opening in 1873 down 
to 1879, argues good natural vigor of constitution in our college 
life. To have steadily grown in all the elements of permanent 
success during these years, and even beyond the usual measure 



"WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 21 

of Western colleges in favorable times, certainly justifies the 
wisdom of the founding and forecasts a future of unusual use- 
fulness. 

We have assisted in the training, more or less, of near two 
hundred teachers of schools in the South- West. Not less than 
fifteen hundred youth have, for longer or shorter periods, been 
under our care. We have graduated six small classes from the 
college proper, with an aggregate of twenty-eight members, the 
last class containing eleven. As many have also graduated from 
our prosperous department of music, of later organization. A 
large proportion of our college and more advanced preparatory 
students have been candidates for the Christian ministry in half 
a dozen different denominations. Some of them are now suc- 
cessful pastors of churches in this and other States. Two of our 
former students are missionary teachers in the heart of the Turkish 
Empire. From the first we have made tuition free to ministerial 
students of every creed. We have aimed to make our work thor- 
oughly Christian, but unsectarian and undenominational. And it 
has been a source of happiness to find our work strongly approved 
by the unsought commendation of ecclesiastical bodies connected 
with three prominent denominations. 

But the direct results of our educational work, though credit- 
able, are far less important than results less immediate and more 
remote. 

The civil war pretty effectually broke up the schools of this part 
of the country. Causes that swept away the cattle and pigs and 
poultry, and even the rail-fences of a district of country larger than 
all your own New England, save the Pine Tree State, would not 
leave standing many school-houses with well ordered schools. At 
the date of our organization but one place (Carthage) in the 
South- West could be said to be blessed with schools of even re- 
spectable character. Educational matters were generally chaotic, 
though beginning here and there to show signs of orderly forma- 
tion. 

Great progress has since been made in this vital interest, in 
everjr direction. Better public schools than those of Springfield, 
Carthage, Joplin, and other villages, it would be hard to find, even 
in Michigan, " the Massachusetts of the West." A new educa- 
tional impulse has seized upon the people, in the hamlets and in 



22 "WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 

the country districts as well as in the larger towns. Our " South- 
west Missouri Teachers' Association " is a body of ladies and 
gentlemen whose annual meetings are worthy of any part of the 
country, in the importance of the educational topics discussed as 
well as in the display of intellectual acuteness and culture in dis- 
cussing them. Schools, academies, and " colleges " have sprang 
up in every quarter, which are generally prosperous. 

Of course, I do not claim that these beneficent results are to 
be solely, or even chiefly, attributed to our work here. But I do 
say that Drury College has been a very important factor in this 
great work. 

At the count} r -seat of a neighboring county not long ago, I met 
a plain farmer, for thirty 3 r ears a resident of the South- West, the 
father of a former student, but till that day unknown to me, who 
sought me out in a crowd and thankedme for the benefits done 
the country by Drury College, saying in substance : ' ' Your work 
has lifted the character of all our schools. Competition with the 
teachers sent out from Drury has compelled the retirement of the 
old inferior teachers and the employment of those better edu- 
cated." The inspiration given here to musical culture by my col- 
league at the organ there has improved the quality of the music 
in the churches of Springfield 100 per cent, albeit not all of our 
musicians may be disposed to acknowledge the indebtedness. 

But I have already spoken too long, and will close. We have 
not very much to exhibit to 3'ou to-day, Men of the East, of work 
actually done. Here is only a beginning, only an endeavor. 
We have sought to plant the seed of a noble future growth, in all 
fidelity to our ancestry, to the great interests of Christian culture, 
to the demands of the grand opportunity offered here to us and to 
you. On our endeavor we modestly crave your favor, your 
sympathy, your help. 

Dr. Goodell then introduced Rev. Simeon Gilbert, editor of the 
Chicago Advance. 

Mr. Gilbert congratulated the President on being a native of 
New Hampshire, and himself on being a native of Vermont, allud- 
ing to the unique beaut} r of the home of his bo}mood, between two 
parallel ranges of mountains, where, whenever heeding dear old 
Jeremy Taylor's counsel, ''sometimes to be curious to see what 



"WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 23 

preparations the sun doth make for his rising," he used to see the 
gilding of the mountain tops on the West — ever since when he 
had been facing the west and watching the rising advent of the 
morning. To-day forty centuries and more were seen approach- 
ing us ; they welcome us ; we welcome them. We faced them 
with bared heads and a sense of awe that could not be uttered. 
This was the center of the continent ; and yet it was at what is 
the present frontier of its advancing civilization. This was a 
great day ; a great day for Drury, not only, but as well for those 
who had come to witness it. The larger, not to say the better, 
part of the National Council were there. They had just halted a 
few days at St. Louis, to get the key-note before coming on here. 
They had paused there awhile, gathered from every part of the 
land, to take a look at the world, to contemplate its wants, to 
study its infinitely momentous problems, to ponder the questions 
of the age in the light of the truths for all the ages, the questions 
of the day, and of the hour, in the light of unceasing crises that 
are all the while emerging. Reference was made to the unending 
task which had been the almost chief glory of our historic Con- 
gregationalism, the planting and the transplanting of Christian 
schools and colleges, beginning at the Atlantic coast, each new 
westward State doing over again, as it was incited, instructed, and 
helped to do so, the prophetic undertakings of the Eastern and 
older States. Of all American history its brightest and most vital 
path followed this Christian school building line. If he were not 
tied to journalism — trying to do a little toward writing the daily 
history of the world, next to the doing of such a work as these 
college builders are doing, would be to write the history of the 
genesis and the evolution, the exodus and the " numbers " of the 
American Christian College. The dsijs of beginning were the 
greatest days of all. 

Following Mr. Gilbert, Hon. J. E. Sargent, LL.D., formerly 
Chief Justice of the State of New Hampshire, spoke as follows : — 

As a son of New Hampshire and of Dartmouth College, I 
have been very much interested in what I have seen and heard 
to-day. The President of this young institution in the South- 
West, and others who have been interested with him in its growth 
and its work, have to-day recounted some of the struggles through 



24 " WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 

which your college has passed and some of the hardships and dis- 
couragements which it has encountered on the way to its present 
prosperity and usefulness. 

I have been very forcibly reminded of what history informs 
us were the hardships and the trials of the founders of my own 
Alma Mater in the olden time, when the first president, Wheelock, 
with few assistants and a handful of scholars, came up from Con- 
necticut into the then wilderness of New Hampshire, and located 
their new college on the plain of Hanover, where thejr cleared up 
the land and lived in the log cabins which their own hands had 
made, trusting with a sublime faith in the future success and 
greatness of their work, which the facts of history have now more 
than verified. 

The motto which was adopted for the college — Vox clamantis 
in deserto — was then literally true. But the voice which was 
then heard only in the wilderness of New Hampshire has since 
made itself heard all over the State and nation. It has intro- 
duced to the world such names as Webster and Choate and Wood- 
bury and a host of others as statesmen and lawyers and divines 
and men of letters. So ma}' your flourishing college give to your 
State and the nation names not less illustrious in literature and 
law and theology, and bless the world by its noble contributions 
to science and the arts, in the age that is to come. 

We have heard mention made of the material aid which has 
been furnished to this college from friends in Massachusetts and 
other Eastern States. New Hampshire has, perhaps, less of wealth 
to contribute than many other Eastern States. But she has what 
is better than money, more valuable than treasure, — namely, men. 
And she has given you a man for President of your institution who 
is not only a native of our State, but a graduate of Dartmouth, — 
her only college, — a man who received his first impressions as 
well as his maturer training in the old Granite State, the inspira- 
tion of whose mountains and valleys, lakes and rivers has become 
one of the motive powers of his life, one of the essential elements 
of his being. 

Only a few years ago and your now peaceful city was startled 
by the alarms of war, your soil was wet with the blood of your 
citizens. Those were days of passion, of anger and of strife, 
when brother was arrayed against brother — fighting upon oppo- 



25 

site sides in the great conflict — and your territory, even these 
localities now occupied by us, was overrun by the contending 
armies. 

The war record shows that on the fifth day of July, 1861, 
the battle of Carthage was fought, and that Col. Sigel retreated 
from there to Springfield ; also, that Gen. Lyon, having defeated 
the Confederates at Boonville and at Dug Spring, on the tenth 
day of August, with five thousand troops, attacked a Confederate 
force of double his number at Wilson Creek, near Springfield. 
After a hard fight of six hours, Gen. Lyon being killed, the Union 
forces under Col. Sigel and Maj. Sturgis retired to Springfield; 
also, that on the 26th of October there was a gallant charge of 
Zagonyi, with one hundred and fifty of Fremont's body-guard, 
upon a large force of Confederates near Springfield, where the 
enemy was routed ; and, further, that Gen. Curtis took possession 
of Springfield February 13, 1862. 

From these facts it will readily be seen that in the late conflict 
the seat of your college was considered as an important locality 
for the purposes of the war and as a strategic centre in our late 
civil conflict ; and what was probably more unfortunate still was 
that, from the location of your State and her peculiar situation in 
regard to slavery, her interests were conflicting and her people 
were divided, and feelings of bitterness and hostility were thus 
engendered which are not easily forgotten. 

But now that the strife is over we are glad to find that sensible 
views are prevailing, that the past is being left to bury its own 
dead, and the people are uniting in their efforts for the advance- 
ment of the State in agriculture, in mechanics, in the great indus- 
tries of mining and manufacturing, in education, and in the moral 
improvement of the people. Let your only strife hereafter be for 
the most honorable dealing, the highest culture, the most exalted 
patriotism, and the purest morality and religion. 

The Southerners, though they may have their prejudices (and 
it is possible that we of the North may have ours), yet when we 
get at their hearts, are generous and genial and honorable. Let 
us all henceforth know no North, no South, but let us be one 
nation, united in one patriotism and one love in all our efforts. 
Then shall we be strong, and a glorious future awaits us. And in 
our religion let us have no East and no West (of which we have 



26 "WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 

been hearing at the Council), but let our whole country be the 
Lord's vineyard, and let us all, from Maine to California and 
from the Lakes to the Gulf, labor in that vineyard with a spirit of 
self-consecration, of forgiveness, and of brotherly love. 

Professor Brown having again led the audience in singing one 
of the grand old Christian hymns, the chairman introduced the 
next speaker, the Rev. James M. Whiton, LL. D., of Newark, N. 
J. , who said : — 

There are nearly thirty Springfields in the United States, but 
this will be known in my remembrance as the Springfield. I know 
the fair city on the banks of the Connecticut, where the flag waves 
over the most noted arsenal of our country ; but here is planted 
the standard of a kingdom on which the sun never sets, and here 
it waves upon a monumental spot consecrated by the reconciliation 
of North and South in union for the highest interests of humanity. 

The present of Drury College has been spoken of as "a day 
of small things," but I cannot regard it as such. That was a day 
of small things when the Mayflower, in that long past November, 
lay in the harbor of Princetown on Cape Cod. That was a daj^ of 
small things when President Wheelock, only one hundred and ten 
years since, planted Dartmouth College, eighteen whites and six 
Indians, in log huts on the then wilderness of Hanover, New 
Hampshire. But to-day is a day of great things. There is power 
here in a strong beginning. 

When the first shoot of a young plant has emerged from the 
soil, there may be doubt whether the tender thing can live through 
drought and frost. But when a new branch first starts from the 
side of the rooted tree, there is no such doubt, for it has the 
strength of the tree and the life of all the roots to guarantee its 
growth. And so to-day is a day of hope and confident assurance 
here. This college, with all the older life back of it from which 
it sprang, is to grow. It is the heir of an undoubted future — 
of a work that cannot fail. In such a prospect well may you 
rejoice as those who possess abundant guarantees that your labor 
will gather its harvest. The confidence expressed in the motto 
on the State seal of old Connecticut is your confidence: Qui 
transtulit sustinet — He who transplanted still sustains. 

As I stood in yonder pit close by the corner-stone that you 



"WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 27 

were laying, and listened to the chant, ' ' give thanks unto the 
Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever," the same 
chant with which, as we read, ''the builders laid the foundation 
of the temple of the Lord," my heart swelled with emotion. How 
fitly chosen that chant to express the thought in which the hearts 
of the founders of such institutions as this rejoice ! It is of the 
mercy of the Lord that we are ever permitted to originate a work 
that is fraught with blessing both to those for whom and to those 
by whom it is performed. It is a blessing to be permitted to have 
one's name written upon enduring foundations like these, even as 
upon the foundations of the City of God were written " the names 
of the twelve apostles of the Lamb." I congratulate you upon 
this honor which God has given jow., of standing at the head of 
the stream of blessing and of power, whose flow, constantly 
widening, is to irrigate and fertilize this broad field. 

THE DINNER. 

At the conclusion of the remarks of Dr. Whiton, an adjourn- 
ment was made to the large dining-room in the Walter Fairbanks 
Hall, where dinner was in waiting. Here tables had been spread 
for two hundred and seventy-six. Many prominent citizens of 
Springfield were present, by invitation, to meet the distinguished 
strangers ; and when guests, citizens, and college authorities had 
all been seated, scarcely a vacant chair remained. 

The spacious room, handsomely decorated for the occasion and 
filled with the great company, presented a most inspiring spec- 
tacle. No one who witnessed it will soon forget the scene. 

After dinner came the reading of toasts and more speaking. 
President Morrison presided and announced the sentiments and 
the speakers. To give fuller voice to the first toast — "To our 
guests : divines, editors, lawyers, scholars, and men of business, 
from the Atlantic Coast to the Golden Gate of the Pacific ! We bid 
you heartiest welcome to our city, to our firesides, to this young 
school of learning, and to this festive board!" — the chairman 
called on Capt. George M. Jones, a member of the Executive 
Committee of the College as well as an old resident of the place, 
who spoke as follows : — 

Mr. Chairman : — In the absence of another, I am called upon 
to offer a word of welcome to these our honored guests. This is 



28 "WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 

their misfortune — I am honored. But does not what we have 
already done, and are still doing, give them a stronger assurance 
of our hearty welcome than any words of mine could do? Words 
may be, and often are, the blank cartridges of parade-day only, 
while actions are the solid shot and canister whereby conquests 
are made and victories gained. But since words you must have — 
then what shall I say ? To what shall we welcome them ? Shall 
we welcome them to the great West, which I am reminded they 
are here to look out upon? Yes or no. 

If by certain geographical boundaries, or by a particular line 
of longitude, they have marked the line of division between the 
East and the West, or if by the planting of their feet on the sun- 
set side of the great river that washes the eastern border of our 
State they have been content to say the object of their search has 
been accomplished — then, yes. But if they are looking for the 
boundless prairie or primeval forests, with their attendants of 
roving herds and profusion of wild animals, so graphically pic- 
tured in our school books — then, no. For, lo ! the West is not 
here ! And they shall find, as they further advance, that it has 
receded before them like the mirage of the desert. True, that by 
going a step farther they shall see the red man face to face — not, 
however, in his war paint and feathers, but clothed in civilization's 
garb and with the mind intent on the vocations of peace and the 
acquisition of knowledge. 

So we remind them that, instead of the West, this is only the 
k ' gateway to the East. ' ' 

But happy am I in saying to our honored guests that in part- 
ing with the West we have retained her out-door latch-string — her 
proverbial hospitality — which was equalled in extent only by her 
limitless prairies. The yule log still burns cheerily on the hearth ; 
and instead of the venison hams which hung in the cabin chim- 
ney we offer you the more juicy tenderloin from the fatted bul- 
lock. To our homes, our firesides, our tables, we give you a 
hearty, Western wecome. 

We welcome you to our beautiful little city, — the Queen of the 
Ozarks, — which in consequence of her churches and school-houses 
we hope does and shall continue to prove, in a two-fold sense, a 
city set on a hill. 

We hail you a hearty thrice-welcome to the halls of Drury Col- 



4 'WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 29 

lege, as yet only a babe in swaddling clothes, but daily acquiring 
strength and adding new beauties which outrival the brightest 
visions of its founders. 

To some of you who live in the shadow of those grand old in- 
stitutions of the East, whose fame has gone out through all the 
world, our efforts here may seem feeble indeed, but we can only 
remind such that tall oaks from little acorns grow. 

And we would add, — with pardonable pride, we trust, — that 
some who have already gone out from these halls have set their 
faces Eastwardly, and found place and position alongside of the 
children of the older institutions. If Drury shall have done this 
in her infancy, what may we not look for in the years of her 
matured strength ? Men of the East, look well to your laurels ! 

We welcome you as men of business, whose eyes are glancing 
along the lines of trade and commerce with the view of finding out 
for yourselves the vast capabilities of this Western world. We 
would invite such to look up our barns and granaries, their sides 
almost bursting with the bountiful harvest they can scarce contain, 
and into our cellars and store-houses, where the fruits of gar- 
den and orchard are gathered in such rich profusion. It has been 
said that the West is the granary of the world, and I dare say 
that this visitation will fix this truth in your minds so firmly as not 
to be gainsaid. 

We welcome you warmly as teachers and educators who 
understand, better than all others, how to sympathize with us in 
our efforts to build up such an institution as this about which we 
linger to-day. You know full well that our sailing has not always 
been on a smooth sea. You do not need to be told that our path- 
way has been marked by toil and tears. You understand at a 
glance what are our hopes, our aspirations, our needs. 

But more than these — we welcome you as embassadors of Him 
" by Whom cometh every good and perfect gift." 

We welcome you upon whom the injunction has fallen, and 
whose life work it is, to "go into all the world and preach the 
Gospel to every living creature," and whose office it is to go in 
and out before the people and ' ' lead them as a shepherd leadeth 
his flock." You will not fail to see what a grand opening here is 
for those who would enter in and possess the land for Christ. 
We welcome you for your work's sake. 



30 "WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 

And now, Mr. President, allow me, in a special manner, to 
welcome my friend who sits on my left [taking by the hand Rev. 
Mr. Shay, of Illinois], whom I met about eighteen years ago 
under very different circumstances from these under which we 
meet to-day. 'Twas at Lexington, in this State, he under Col. 
Mulligan, and I under Gen. Price. For days we we were face to 
face, he on one side of the hemp-bales and I on the other. But 
finally the hemp- bales were rolled so near him, and our reception 
waxed so warm, he surrendered to us ; and to-day he, 03^ his 
manly grasp, warm heart, and kind words, has captured me. My 
surrender is, I trust, an honorable one, as was his on College Hill 
at Lexington, for they fought like brave men as they were. 

We cordially welcome him, together with all who wore the 
blue. 

And now, may we not hope that your coming and the words you 
may speak, together with the impressions you may receive, will 
prove a savor of life unto life, both to you and us. 

Again we give you nil, preachers and laymen, teachers and 
journalists, a henrty Western welcome. 

To these words of welcome the Rev. J. W. Cooper, pastor of 
the South Congregational Church, in New Britain, Conn., made 
the following response : — 

Mr. President, Citizens of Springfield, Instructors and Students 
of Drury College: — I find I have one more cause for rejoicing in 
the good fortune which has made me the successor in the pastor- 
ate to the Rev. Dr. Goodell, — our Connecticut contribution to the 
South- West, — in that on that ground I have the honor to respond 
to this toast of welcome. And yet, sir, I am not unmindful of 
the grave responsibility of my position, for I represent a weighty 
body. I, who am the least of all these saints, am to speak for 
editors, divines, learned professors, distinguished laymen, and I 
know not whom else, enumerated in that formidable list which you 
have just read. I trust you will look upon me as duly enlarged 
to meet the requirements of the case. As for myself, sir, with 
such a constituency about me, I feel that I weigh a ton. I hope 
I may be equal to the emergency. 

We do most heartily appreciate the welc 1 ave so cor- 

dially given us, and which has been so eloquently led by my 






"WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 31 

brother who has just spoken. We come from all parts of our 
land, — North, West, and East, — but we have, for the most part, 
this at least in common, that we are all strangers to the vast region 
of which your institution forms the centre. It is our good fortune 
as well as our great pleasure to visit this section of our common 
country and spend this day at Drury College. We rejoice at what 
we see. We congratulate 3^011 on the evidences of substantial 
success already achieved, on your present prosperity, and your 
bright prospects for the future. We are with you in the good 
work of Christian education, and we thank you for the fraternal 
reception you have given us. 

It is very natural for one in these genial circumstances to have 
his thought turned back to his own college days, and I am re- 
minded of my old class of '65 at Yale, and of the excellent motto 
we chose in our Freshman year, which has served some of us a 
good turn since college days have passed. Our motto was: " "Ou 
koyo'.m, aXX epyotfn" — "Not by words, but by deeds." It seems 
to me to have an appropriateness at the present time ; for I would 
assure you, Mr. President, that it will be our desire to respond to 
this welcome you have just given us, not b}^ words only, but also 
by our deeds. Why, sir, we have done that already, in ways 
physiological, as we, have been sitting at these tables until it would 
seem that we were altogether too full for utterance. And we hope 
to do it in the future in ways more profitable to yourself and the 
institution over which you preside. 

I have the honor to be a citizen of the good old Commonwealth 
of Connecticut. Certain other of the old States were eulogized 
during the exercises of the morning, and it devolves upon me to 
speak a word in behalf of the " land of steady habits." Con- 
necticut is a place of deeds. I have upon my parlor mantel, 
among the most cherished of our family treasures, a veritable 
wooden nutmeg. It was made from the memorable old Charter 
Oak of Hartford. It speaks alike for our love of liberty and for 
our industries. My house is in the little city of New Britain ; not 
so great as some of your new Western towns, and yet not without 
some signs of vigorous life. It is a mistake for the West to think 
that all the enterprise and growth is in their section During the 
past decade our little town has shown an advance in population of 
nearly fifty per cent, which, I believe, even exceeds that which 

3 



32 "WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 

the census allows for your great St. Louis. Our people are hard- 
working manufacturers and mechanics, — men of deeds, — and 
they have long been interested in the spread of Christian intelli- 
gence through our land. My own church — thanks to the influence 
of your Dr. Goodell — has for years made some of its largest 
contributions to the Cause of Christian education in the South and 
West. It is a popular cause in all our region, and will doubtless 
continue to be in the future. I cannot say that we look for any 
immediate relief from the demands to be made upon us in this 
line, for we are most orthodox in our belief in that doctrine of 
which I have heard Dr. Bacon tell the story, of the old lad}^ who 
insisted that ' ' it was a veiy good doctrine if it was only lived up 
to." I refer to the doctrine of total depravh*y. Our very indus- 
tries at New Britain are staked upon the inf allible truth of that 
doctrine. We are manufacturers of locks. We show our faith 
b}^ our works. And the same trait of human nature which we 
trust will continue to make a market for our goods will, without 
doubt, also give us all an opportunity to prove bj r our deeds our 
continued devotion to this great cause of education. 

During my brief visit to your city, it has been impossible for 
me to keep out of mind the name of a man who has been noted 
among you as a man of deeds. He was a native of my native 
State, and won his great fame in this State, where he is to-day 
honored both by friend and foe. Last summer I spent a part of 
my vacation in driving* over the hills of Windham County, in the 
extreme eastern corner of Connecticut, and came one day upon a 
country churchyard in one of the quietest of our farming towns. 
Alighting from nry carriage, I passed through the broken gate- 
waj r and stood before the modest marble shaft which bears the 
name of Nathaniel Lyon. He fell ten miles from here, at Wil- 
son's Creek. His body rests in that secluded spot far away, in 
the home of his childhood. I learned some things concerning his 
early life which greatly interested me. I saw the little block 
house where he was born, standing on a cross-road, fully a mile 
and a half from any other dwelling, and on such a sterile and 
stony farm as only those who are acquainted with some of our 
back New England farms can appreciate. He went from that 
home a poor, barefooted country boy, unkempt in appearance 
and unsupported by friends, to apply to Gov. Cleveland, then 



"WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 33 

Representative in Congress from that district, for a nomination to 
West Point. Gov. Cleveland told me that at first it seemed to 
him a ludicrous idea that such an uncouth specimen could enter 
West Point. But he soon found that there was the ring of true, 
metal in the fellow, and he nominated him. The subsequent 
character and career of Gen. Lyon show that this confidence was 
not misplaced. He is an illustration of what education will do for 
the man who, with proper capacity and a laudable ambition, is 
willing to struggle against adverse circumstances and win his own 
way in the world. I am glad to mention his name here to-day 
and join with you in honoring his memory. 

And yet, sir, it is not for a name that we are striving when en- 
gaged in doing such work as you are so nobly doing here at Drury. 
I shall never forget the sermon which President Woolsey, of Yale 
College, preached on the occasion of his retirement from the posi- 
tion which he had held so long, and with such distinguished honor. 
The great and good man took for his text the words of the Apostle : 
" David, after he had served his own generation according to the 
will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw 
corruption." The sentiment of that discourse is the creed of 
every true worker. The value of life does not consist in attaining 
fame, nor in being appreciated for our labors, nor even in achiev- 
ing great success in the work given us to do, but in serving our 
generation according to the will of God. We find you, sir, 
engaged in such a service as this, and in such a spirit. You are 
working for this generation, and for those that are to come. We 
give you our hearty God-speed. We reciprocate your kindly 
greetings. We pray for Divine blessing to attend your labors, 
and to foster this young college whose foundations you have so 
wisely laid. And once again we thank you for the cordial West- 
ern and Southern welcome you have extended to us to-day. 

The Chairman then announced that Rev. Dr. G. S. F. Savage, 
of the Chicago Theological Seminary, would speak to the next 
sentiment, "The Contributions of the East to the West." We 
are sorry that we have no report of the very interesting speech of 
Dr. Savage to insert here. 

The third was the counterpart of the preceding, *" What the 



34 "WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 

West has done for the East," and was responded to by the Rev. 
R. B. Howard, Boston editor of the Chicago Advance : — 

The West sends us our food. Train after train I passed on 
my way hither, loaded down with the rich productions of this 
great Western country. The West has also begun to send us 
men in return for the thousands she has taken from us. Either 
born or trained on the prairies and in the cities of the older West, 
some of the best ministers in New England to-day are so in part, 
because they know the West by experience. I was glad to hear 
Dr. Savage, of Chicago, mention that $30,000 'check sent as a 
dividend to a single Eastern stockholder in a Western railroad. 
I know of several who have invested in stocks, and even Chicago 
house-lots, and have seen no such checks. 

Greatness requires two things, ability and opportunity. At the 
East we have some ability, educational, pecuniary, religious, and 
the West affords abundant opportunity for its forth-putting and 
consequent development. Here are open and ample fields for 
the missionarjr impulse and conviction awakened by Eastern 
famiry and church training. Here is a call for money to erect 
churches, sustain missionaries, plant and endow colleges, which 
only the consecrated resources of rich Christians can meet. At 
the last Boston Congregational Club meeting, the moderator 
claimed it as the highest compliment possible to pay Boston, that 
so many hungry Christian institutions stretched forth their empty 
hands for her help. On that platform was a man from Constan- 
tinople, one from Washington, another from Wisconsin, and still 
another from Greece. All were welcome and none would be sent 
empty away. 

College presidents from the West are not infrequent or unrecog- 
nized visitors to New England. They have not come in vain. 
They have furnished our ' ' ability ' ' with its grandest ' ' opportu- 
nity! " 

The great Congregational Council at St. Louis, of which this 
meeting is the South- West extension, turned its eyes away from 
Plymouth Rock towards the Golden Gate. These eyes are gazing 
on your ripening fields, and will never again be withdrawn. Its 
grandest work has been to bring the conscience, conviction, and 
Christian love of Eastern people face to face with the crying 
want of the great West, old and new. Henceforth more gladly 



"WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 35 

and gratefully will we respond to the divinely presented oppor- 
tunity to bless ourselves by helping you. 

The Chairman then introduced the Rev. Robert West, of St. 
Louis, as the "■ witty man" for the occasion. Such an introduc- 
tion would ordinarily defeat its own object, but Mr. West was 
fully equal to the occasion, alternately setting the tables in a roar 
with his witty anecdotes, and then hushing the company in tearful 
sympathy with the touching pathos of his words. 

The Chairman next introduced the Rev. Edward G. Porter, of 
Lexington, Mass., who spoke as follows: — t 

Me, President : — I am happy to speak for the Eastern friends 
of this institution, and especially for those of Boston and vicinity. 
You know, sir, as well as I, what an interest we take in the cause 
of liberal education. My own Alma Mater at Cambridge has 
done so much for Massachusetts from the early colonial days, that 
we would gladly assist in planting similar seats of learning in 
other parts of our great country. From all that I can learn, you 
have been exceedingly fortunate in the place you have chosen for 
the location of this college, in the friends who have come forward 
to build its walls, and in the wide and important constituency 
which you are naturally to supply with the inestimable advantages 
of sound learning and true culture. As none of the speakers who 
have preceded me have referred to the obligations under which 
your hospitality has placed us, I will venture to say that those of 
us who were delegates to the National Council will not be willing 
to return to our homes without leaving some testimonial of our 
hearty sympathy with you in the noble work in which you are 
here engaged. 

Not having had any conference with my brethren, I cannot 
speak officially, but I feel that we might easily provide for a 
scholarship for needy students in the college, or for a suitable 
bell to take the place of the one that we heard as we walked to 
this hall, or perhaps for a memorial window or pulpit in the new 
chapel, the corner-stone of which was laid in our presence this 
morning. ' 

I shall be glad to cooperate in any such plan, and I see by the 
favorable responses all around me that there will be no difficulty 
in leaving some appropriate souvenir of our visit. 



36 

And now, Mr. President, speaking for myself personally, I 
would like to offer to Drury College a portrait of its first presi- 
dent, if you will give an artist the necessary number of sittings the 
next time you come to Boston. Our older colleges and historical 
societies have nothing in their possession more valuable than the 
portraits of the men who founded and supported them in the days 
of their infancy. I know we are accustomed to think lightly of 
this matter as far as we ourselves are concerned, but I trust, sir, 
that your love for the college with which you are so closely iden- 
tified will aid you in overcoming any modesty which might pre- 
vent you accepting my offer. 

I shall never forget the interesting scenes in which we have this 
day participated, and I beg to return my sincere thanks to the 
officers of the college and to the kind-hearted citizens of Spring- 
field for their generous attentions. 

In response to this unexpected request for his portrait, Presi- 
dent Morrison could only say with a lady friend when once asked 
by him for her photograph. ''Perhaps, — when I have become 
good-loooking ! " 

The Rev. A. H. Bradford, of Montclair, New Jersey, was intro- 
duced as the next speaker : — 

I rise to present a resolution which I have been asked to offer 
by others in this company. Before doing so allow me to give 
utterance to one thought which has not j r et been mentioned, and 
which is impressed upon my mind with great force. We have 
been emphasizing, and rightly, the importance of laying broad 
and deep the foundations of Christian institutions in the West 
and South- West. It is a work the importance of which no one 
can exaggerate. I desire to call to your attention a motive for 
taking hold of this work which should appeal to us as patriots 
and as Christians. Friends, are you aware that while New Eng- 
land and the Middle States are infusing their best blood into the 
new West, while the strength and manhood of the East are set- 
tling on the prairie, between the mountains, and beside the lakes 
and rivers of the great interior, and on the Pacific Slope, and 
laying the foundations of a great empire in these opening States, 
that their places are being taken by those who are rapidly making 
the elder States L ' home missionary ground ' ' ? 



"WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 37 

Massachusetts is not the same Massachusetts, and Rhode Island 
is not the same Rhode Island of a quarter of a century ago. 
Their factories are filled with those who have brought Old World 
principles and Old World morals into our New World, and to me 
the problem of the future in the East is quite as difficult to fore- 
cast as that in the West. The stalwart manhood of New England 
is making a new New England in the interior, while old New 
England is yielding the homes of the fathers to those who bring a 
Continental Sabbath, Socialistic labor and domestic theories, and 
the dogmatic rationalism of France and Germany. The East for 
its own sake, therefore, in the not distant future, will need the 
reflex influence of just such Christian institutions as Drury Col- 
lege, and of the civilization which such institutions will inevitably 
develop. Some time Massachusetts may need Missouri quite as 
much as now the prairies need the consecrated wealth and man- 
hood of the Atlantic seaboard. Wherefore I am persuaded that, 
for our own sakes quite as much as for yours, we ought to be 
interested in the work which you are doing. But, sir, at this late 
hour, when we are all full of the good cheer and the good pro- 
visions of this most hospitable occasion, I will not detain 3 T ou by 
further remarks. It now gives me great pleasure to offer as our 
formal expression of gratitude the following resolution, which 
means, sir, all that its words express, and }^et is but a faint hint 
of what our hearts experience : 

Resolved, That the thanks of this Visiting Company are due, 
and are hereby tendered to President Morrison and the Faculty of 
Drury College, for providing for this excursion, to the ladies who 
have prepared this most munificent collation, to the officers of the 
St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad for their liberal provision 
for our comfort when travelling, to the choir and band for the 
music the}^ furnished, to the citizens of Springfield for the gener- 
ous entertainment of their homes, and to the whole South- West, 
which seems to have condensed a welcome to us into this one 
occasion of magnificent and hearty hospitality. 

At the conclusion of Mr. Bradford's remarks the resolutions 
introduced by him were adopted by a rising vote — unanimously — 
and the company dispersed. 

During the afternoon brief, pithy, and witty speeches were made 



38 "WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 

by Rev. James H. Harwood, D.D., of Hannibal, Mo., for four years 
the ardent, self-sacrificing, and successful canvassing agent for the 
college ; by Mr. J. T. White, a graduate of the college and now 
principal of the Springfield High School; by Hou. George B. 
Barrows, of Fryeburg, Maine, who spoke of the fact that he was 
a trustee of the Old Fryeburg Academy, — in which Daniel 
Webster taught school just after graduating from college, to earn 
the money with which to pay debts contracted for his education ; 
by Rev. H. W. Jones, of St. Johnsbury, Vt., pastor of that re- 
markable family, whose Christian beneficence keeps pace with 
their noted manufactures as they reach out into all parts of the 
world, — and others. 

Mr. Harwood' s reminiscences of his work for the college in Eew 
Egland, — referring to the fact that, at the close of a meeting in 
Worcester, Mass. , Dea. David Whitcomb, to that moment a per- 
fect stranger, stepped up to him and offered him $1,000 for Drury 
College, and that a wortlry son of this noble benefactor of the 
college was here present, — called up Mr. G. Henry Whitcomb, a 
prominent manufacturer of Worcester, who remarked that the 
sound of the cracked college bell had that morning excited his 
sympathy as he went to college prayers, and he and a fellow- 
townsman at the same table (Mr. F. B. Knowles) had agreed 
together to replace the old bell with a new one. 



WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 39 



SYMPOSIUM AT THE OPEEA HOUSE. 



In spite of the heavy fall of snow during the day, and which 
now covered the streets to quite a depth, the Opera House was 
crowded at night to again hear the visitors. Hon. M. J. Roun- 
tree, Mayor of the cit}^, was expected to preside. Through an 
unfortunate misunderstanding his Honor was not present, and the 
president of the college had to take the chair. After prayer by 
the Rev. J. J. Hough, of Antwerp, N. Y., and admirable music 
by the Choral Union and Conservatory Band, President Morrison 
introduced the Rev. J. M. Sturtevant, Jr., D.D., of Iowa College, 
as the first speaker. Dr. Sturtevant said : — 

It is a privilege to one who has been somewhat familiar with the 
struggles of young colleges, even from his childhood, to be per- 
mitted to express his interest in this day and in your noble young 
institution. Stories of the log-cabin which sheltered my parents 
and their first-born child from the bleak winds that swept over a 
prairie not yet redeemed from the wolves, while the first college 
building in Illinois was going up, and experiences such as a child 
could have of a real pioneer life, are among my earliest recol- 
lections. It does not become me to speak of those things while 
the real actors in them yet live. But let me assure you, sir, that 
from my heart I rejoice in your undertaking. 

And now, in the few moments allotted me, I can, perhaps, do 
no better than to recall and emphasize a remark made this morn- 
ing by one to whom we were all glad to listen — Dr. Dana, of St. 
Paul. I cannot give the words, but the idea was, that the teach- 
ing which inspires is more important than the teaching which 
only informs. That is, the personal influence of the teacher is 
more than the lesson. The choice of lessons is important ; but if 
the spirit of the teacher breathes a noble inspiration upon the 
pupils, it is not of so much importance whether they surround the 
walls of Troy with the " well-greaved Greeks" or cross the Alps 
with Hannibal (as we found some of your classes doing to-daj^), 



40 "WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 

or tread the pleasant paths of natural science. Inspiration is the 
essential thing. 

You believe that, Mr. President, or Drury College would not 
stand a light-house in the South- West. We believe it, or we would 
not have come from the far East and the far North to see your 
well-begun work. 

And let me say to the Eastern friends and patrons who are 
here, that this sentiment justifies, and more than justifies, the 
interest which they have taken and will take in Drury College. 

Let no one say : ' ' This is a small affair ; let the j^oung people 
who need an education go to the well-endowed schools at the East. 
It will be cheaper to educate them there, and it can be better 
done." It will not be cheaper. For a cheap education (cheap, I 
mean, compared with its quality, which is not cheap) commend me 
to Western colleges, such as Beloit, Iowa, Drury, and a score of 
others. But the reason why Drury should be here is deeper than 
that. The young people here, and all over this beautiful and 
growing region, need the inspiration of the college at home. 
Independent of its direct influence on pupils who would never go 
to any other college, it is worth all it costs as an object lesson. 
Whatever else that new college-bell will say, it will daily proclaim 
to those that hear and those too far off to catch its reverberation : 
"Manhood is better than mone}^ ; " "God's service is the true 
end of life." 

And let me say also to our hospitable friends here in Spring- 
field, whom we shall never forget, that this sentiment suggests one 
reason why thej^ should continue to nourish and cherish their 
college. We often mention the financial value of a college, and 
it is greater than we think. It is often worth more to a town than 
the factories for which they pay so dearly. Not all the people 
who seek new homes select them wholly for what we call business 
reasons, riut that is nothing in comparison with the value of a 
college in quickening intellectual and spiritual life in the region 
round about. If anything can lift us and our children out of the 
slough of materialism, — which, if it means for a few refined and 
graceful speculations, means for the many unlimited greed of 
gain and lust of pleasure, — it is such a setting forth of life's 
true end as they furnish who build, by their free gifts of money 
and toil, a Christian college. They love learning, and the} r for- 



' * WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 41 

sake its ancient seats that they may found new centers for its 
diffusion. The}' appreciate great and varied attainments, but the}' 
spend their time showing to the young the first rounds of the 
ladder. The} r love God well enough to give their lives to found 
institutions for His glory. It proves something large and noble 
in a community if it knows how to value such men and foster 
such institutions. 

And, finally, let me say to the young people here: never 
think for a moment of being ashamed to be graduates of a 
" fresh- water college," even one where they have not water 
enough for a boat-club. This sentiment furnishes the reason why 
(as is often asserted, and I believe with entire truth) the gradu- 
ates of our small Western colleges hold, and more than hold, their 
own, in the battle of life, with the graduates of better- appointed 
and larger institutions. These young colleges lack many things 
which would be most useful — things that seem almost indispens- 
able ; — but the inspiration is abundant here. They have the 
advantage in two important respects : ( 1 ) The leading minds 
among the teachers come more directly in contact with their 
pupils ; and (2) there is a mighty inspiration both for teachers and 
pupils in the very fact of founding a college. It impresses one like 
a mountain, without foot-hills, rising directly out of the plain : it 
seems even higher than it is. There is life for us in our difficul- 
ties ; there is a quickening power in our sacrifices. We are ex- 
alted by our successes. In the name of Illinois, the oldest college, 
I think, west of Ohio ; in the name of Iowa, under whose eaves 
I am proud to have my home ; and of Colorado, in whose foun- 
dations I was permitted to have some small part, — I wish you, 
Mr. President, God-speed. 

On the conclusion of Dr. Sturtevant's address, Hon. A. C. 
Barstow, of Providence, R. I., distinguished alike for great suc- 
cess in business and as a philanthropist, was introduced, and 
spoke as follows : — 

Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen : — I did not come 
to Springfield to speak. I came to see and hear, expecting 
if I saw anything worth describing or heard anything worth 
repeating, to make my speech after nry return home. Nor did I 
make the long journey from St. Louis hither, amid this wintry 



42 "WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 

storm, to see Springfield. Since I have been here my eye has not 
run along the lines of trade and commerce, nor have I prospected 
for corner lots or cheap farms. I came to see Drury College. 
Having seen and become interested in many of the colleges of 
the West started during the last fifty years under the fostering 
care of the Congregational churches of the East, I embraced, at 
some personal inconvenience, this opportunity of seeing Drury 
College. It gives me pleasure to say that I am as much surprised 
as gratified by what I have seen this day. Drury College, though 
but seven 3 r ears old, has more to show in buildings and endowment 
than some of our Eastern colleges had when the}^ had attained seven 
times its age. Brown University, the first college planted by the 
great Baptist denomination in this country, obtained its charter 
in 1764. It was located in my native city, Providence, R. I., 
where that denomination had its birth in this country, and where 
its first church was organized. For fifty years it had but a single 
building, and that, though perhaps somewhat larger, did not com- 
pare in beauty or convenience with youv second building, Fair- 
banks Hall. The second building of Brown University, the gift 
of its generous patrons, went up during my early boyhood, and 
about fifty years after the first. Since then seven or eight others 
have been added, and its endowment has been increased perhaps 
ten or twenty-fold. Rhode Island was then small and compara- 
tively poor. She has, of course, added more to her wealth than to 
her acres, and illustrates her gains by increasing her facilities for 
the education of her youth. This is in accordance with the Divine 
command, u With all thy gettings, get understanding." 

Drury College has two permanent buildings, though but seven 
years old, and to-day lays the corner-stone for a third. Her 
endowment has recently been largely increased. It is located in 
a beautiful and thriving inland town, in the centre of a State 
which a New England man. and especially a Rhode Island man, 
may regard as vast in extent. The State has a fertile soil, under- 
lain with minerals of unknown extent and value. From these the 
"hand of diligence" may develop wealth in fabulous amounts; 
and these will draw within her borders a population which ere 
long may not only rival, but far outstrip in numbers that of airy 
of the States in this Union at the present time. This population 
should be educated — fully educated. To insure the common 



"WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 43 

school, you must have the college ; and to insure the largest bless- 
ing from education, the college must be Christian. Education is 
a power, but it may be a power for evil as well as for good. To 
educate the head and not the heart, is to put arms into the hands 
of vice. The college must set the standard for education in the 
State. If the college is Christian, not merely in name, but in 
fact, the key-note to all the education in the State will be 
Christian. 

You have made a good beginning. The preparatorj- school, the 
college, and the Church stand side by side. You are following the 
example of the early pilgrims of New England. Six years after the 
first settlement of Boston, the foundations of Harvard College 
were laid — laid in prayer and with evidence of Christian love and 
sacrifice. The Pilgrims brought with them not only law, order, 
government, but religion, art, and letters as well ; and their sons 
should carry all these with them, wherever they go, and thus 
' ' make the wilderness and solitary place glad for them. ' ' So 
also the growth of Christian and educational institutions should 
keep pace with the growth of population and wealth. I beg you 
not to think that Drury College is finished when the cap stone of 
the chapel is brought in with rejoicing. You will then have taken 
another step forward, but will not have finished your course. A 
college is never finished in a growing country. / When the college 
stops its growth, then look for the decay of the State — indeed 
you may consider it as already commenced. 

I beg that I may not be regarded as speaking professionally. 
I have no connection with or relation to any college, except as a 
contributor to their funds for building or endowment. I am not 
even a graduate of any college. Controlled by mechanical and 
commercial tastes, I left the common school early in life to engage 
in business ; but, nevertheless, I have been greatly blessed b}^ the 
college. Education is not finished in the school-room. Life is a 
school, and every day has its lessons. Those who have had but 
few advantages in the school-room should be thankful for the 
lessons placed before them by men of higher education in all the 
walks of daily life, and grow wiser themselves by every day's 
study. It is possible that multitudes of men whose early lives 
were devoted to toil, with but few opportunities for education, do 
not realize how much even they are indebted to the college. The 



44 "WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 

college has filled all the professions — including teachers, editors, 
and authors — with educated men, and thrown large numbers be- 
sides into all the walks of commerce and trade. Through these a 
standard of taste in conversation, composition, aDd letters has 
been established, which has been, and will ever be, a stimulant 
and help to aspiring men. But for this, the class which we call 
self-educated men would have less motive for education, and less 
help to it. 

Let the citizens of this great and growing State rally round 
Drury College, and all the more because it is on a Christian foun- 
dation. Those who laid these foundations recognized the great 
truth that "the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom." I 
honor these men. The worthy President of this college, and his 
assistants in this great work of providing Christian education for 
this and the coming generations in this great State, are deserving 
of great honor, and should have the sympathy and hearty coop- 
eration of all good citizens. The early Pilgrims in New England, 
when they had not money, gave corn, or wheat, or such other 
things as they had. to sustain Harvard College, and went abroad 
to beg only that which they could not furnish from their own 
store. If to-day you need and receive help for your young col- 
lege now struggling into being, regard it as a loan which 3^011 are 
to return — not to the donors, but to the needy settlements 
which are yet to dot the vast solitudes still to the west of you. 

After music by Prof. Brown and the Choral Union, the Rev. 
Lyman Abbott, D.D., editor of The Christian Union, New York, 
came forward and gave the following address : — 

The time is too brief and the subjeet is too great to allow of 
either introduction or peroration. I shall begin without the one 
and close without the other. God is pouring into this country 
from every nationality on the face of the globe. Our greatest 
danger to-day lies in the heterogeneousness of our population. 
Consider for a moment the diverse elements which go to make it 
up. We have every nation and almost every race represented 
here. The negro, the Chinese, the North American Indian, and 
from Europe the Englishman, the Irishman, the Frenchman, the 
Norwegian, the Dane, the German, the Italian. We have every 
phase of religion represented here : the ceremonial, represented by 



"WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 45 

our Roman Catholic population ; the emotional and excitable, 
represented by our negro population ; the Pagan, represented by 
the Chinese and to some extent by the North American Indian ; 
the Infidel, which is really a form of religious faith or unfaith, 
represented by the German and the native American, and the 
highly intellectual, represented by New England and its descen- 
dants. It is easier to learn every dialect of Germany in the city 
of New York than in any province of Germany itself. Thus into 
this great American cauldron are pouring elements of humanity 
separated from one another by race prejudice, by religious prej- 
udice, by differences of nationality and by differences of tongue. 
It is absolutely essential to our perpetuity as a nation that we 
harmonize and unify these diverse and often antagonistic elements, 
and the one means by which this is to be accomplished is educa- 
tion. Whatever we may do in the future, we can do nothing in 
the present by religion, so great are the differences in religious 
faith and forms of worship. We can do little or nothing by law, 
for our problem is not to cage behind the same bars people who 
hate or despise one another, but to combine in one family brothers 
and sisters who in honor prefer one another. To accomplish this 
result something can be done by wise legislation, something by 
promoting great internal improvements bringing the different sec- 
tions of the country into closer affiliation, something by stimulat- 
ing rather than checking that free flow between what we call the 
bottom and the top which makes American society the most 
mobile on the face of the globe, something by the national press and 
a national literature ; but that which is radical and fundamental, 
which must stimulate and feed all other means, and without which 
all other means will be in vain, is our educational system, and this 
educational system must be so formed that it will tend to harmo- 
nize and to unify, not to segregate, the different elements of our 
American population. 

To accomplish this our national educational system must have 
four characteristics : — 

First, it must be universal. It must make provisions for the 
wants of the people and all the people. It must provide educa- 
tion for the lowest and the humblest and for the highest and most 
intellectual. It must make an open path from the cabin to the 
library and the learned profession. In its primary forms it must 



46 "WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 

be free as the water which men drink and the air which they 
breathe ; even in its higher forms it must be economical, so that 
poverty shall not exclude the poor from its benefits. No man in 
America who is competent to take on the highest education must 
be prevented from so doing by his poverty. We cannot afford to 
have in this country an intellectual any more than a wealtlry and a 
hereditary caste. 

Secondly, it must be provided for, and in each locality. Great 
universities in the great literary centers have their function in the 
development of our national life, but they cannot take the place of 
colleges scattered everywhere from Maine to Georgia and from 
Cape Hatteras to the Golden Horn. We must dig our wells where 
the thirsty are. We must have the higher education for the boys 
and girls of Missouri in Missouri, of California in California. As 
each home should have its own library, however humble and small, 
so each State should have its college, however humble its first en- 
dowments. 

Thirdly, it must be unsectarian. To build up a system of 
education which shall teach men to be primarily Baptists or 
Methodists or Presbyterians or Congregationalists, or even Protest- 
ants, in the theological sense of that term, is to widen, not lessen, 
the rifts which threaten American society with disintegration. 
What a communnyy made up of heterogeneous elements not fused 
together by a common patriotism and a common humanity may, 
nay, inevitably must become, let the picture presented to-da}^ by 
anarchic Turkey in Europe exhibit to us an eloquent warning. 
In their locality, Northern and Southern and Eastern and West- 
ern, our schools and colleges must be in sentiment wholty Ameri- 
can. In their inception, perhaps even in their control, Congrega- 
tional or Presbyterian or Episcopalian or Methodist or Baptist or 
Roman Catholic, they must be in their broad and general influences 
wholly Christian. They may be the means by which the different 
denominations serve the nation ; thej^ must not be the means by 
which the different denominations build up themselves at the ex- 
pense of their neighbors. 

Fourthly, and finally, the}^ must be Christian. It is not enough 
to teach our girls and boys how to read, to write, to spell, and to 
cipher ; it is not enough to teach them how to use their hands, 
their eyes, their feet, or their intellect : we must teach them how 



47 

to use their conscience ; we must develop their moral sense ; we 
must teach them all that enters into and is necessary to constitute 
good citizenship ; and a good conscience is more essential to good 
citizenship than accuracy in spelling, beauty in handwriting, ele- 
gance in rhetoric, or skill in figures. We need not prepare them 
for death except as preparation for life is the best preparation for 
death, but we must in our great educational system give equip- 
ment to every part of the nature for all the duties and the rela- 
tionships of active life. We must make good tradesmen, good 
lawyers, good doctors, good mechanics, good farmers ; we must 
make good husbands and wives, good fathers and children ; but 
above all and fundamental to all we must make good men and 
women, patterned not after the model of Buddhistic mysticism, 
inSpired not hy Pagan fear of a dreadful God, but built up by the 
inspiration of hope and by the power of faith into a life of free 
and full obedience to the perfect law of love. 

This in its broad outlines must be the work of American educa- 
tion. It is more essential to American well-being than presidents 
or parties. Long after the nation shall have forgotten the throb- 
bing excitement of the question whether Gen. Garfield or Gen. 
Hancock shall preside 'over the political administration of the 
country for the next four years, Drury College and its compeers 
and companions in other States will be carrying on with ever- 
increasing facility and power this work of feeding and building 
up and filling with divine enthusiasm a nation whose foundations 
shall be those of justice and judgment, the foundation of God's 
own throne. 

The next speaker was the Rev. Joseph Anderson, D.D., of 
Waterbury, Conn., who spoke thus: 

That great educator, Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, said on a certain 
occasion: "I must write a pamphlet, or I shall burst." In 
common with these brethren from St. Louis, whom 1 see before 
me, I have been sajang for a week past, amidst the stir and work 
of the National Council, wt I must make a speech, or I shall 
explode." We felt, of course, that we could do better than those 
who were doing the work, and — as if things were not being 
pushed fast enough — we felt that we could make them go faster ; 
so the feeling expressed by Arnold got full possession of us : U I 
must make a speech, or I shall explode." But, Mr. Chairman, 



48 " WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 

when at the close of that excellent collation, at the end of the 
afternoon, I heard my name in the list of those who were to 
speak here this evening, somehow the desire to make a speech 
suddenly left me ; I was no longer in danger of exploding ; I felt 
that I was in danger of a collapse. 

But here I am, nevertheless, representing after my fashion 
those whom you have designated " the wise men from the East; " 
representing especially Connecticut, and, let me add, a country 
much farther away than Connecticut. These men have been tell- 
ing all da}- where they came from. One has rejoiced in New 
Hamphsire, another in Massachusetts, another in New York, and 
another in Ohio. And it becomes me, no doubt, to rejoice that I 
am from Connecticut. But to the thirteen hundred miles which 
lie between Springfield and Waterbury add, if j^ou please, three 
thousand miles more, and you then reach that country happily 
designated by the Moderator of our Council ' ' the New England 
of old England ; " and that is the land I rejoice in — my beloved 
native country, Scotland. Neither do I stand alone in this gather- 
ing, or in the National Council of Congregational Churches, as a 
representative of that land which has throbbed with the best 
Protestant impulses through so man}' generations. 

You see, then, that we go back a long way. These men who 
come from Massachusetts and Vermont are apt to be proud of 
their genealogies. The}^ trace their pedigree as far as Plymouth 
Rock, or connect it with those two brothers who came over in the 
Mayflower. But we Scotchmen have no such starting-point ; like 
the poet Prior, we have to say : 

Nobles and heralds, by your leave, 

Here lies what once was Matthew Prior ; 

The son of Adam and of Eve ; 
Can Bourbon or Nassau claim higher? " 

Yes, we go back a long way. And as our terminus a quo is so 
distant, we naturally fix our thoughts upon a distant terminus 
ad quern. The Golden Gate, of which we have heard so much 
these past six days — that is our goal, and in imagination the 
whole boundless continent is ours. It is not the Yankee nation 
alone that is conquering this Western world : it is that "'united 
kingdom" across the sea; it is the Anglo-Saxon race. The 



"WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 49 

movement which you and we represent in South- Western Missouri 
to-night began in another hemisphere, and the Scotchman as well 
as the Teuton is contributing to the Englishman's success. 

What strikes a visitor from the East, when he makes his first 
Westward trip, is the unfinished character of this Western coun- 
try. Crossing Ohio and Indiana and Illinois, last week, I could 
not but say to myself: " Why do they push on beyond the Mis- 
sissippi, when there is so much room here? Why do they open 
up new territory, when this is so thinly settled and so incomplete?'" 
The Western lands are only half cultivated ; the Western villages, 
and cities even, look as if they were just begun, when we compare 
them with those of the East. The little city of Waterbury, for 
instance, does not seem perfect to those who live in it, but it is in 
marked contrast with what I have seen in the West. Our door- 
yards have a finished look, our side-walks are curbed and laid 
with well-trimmed flag-stones. But, Mr. Chairman, you know 
there is a country (I mean the " mother " couirtoy) in comparison 
with which even New England seems crude and unfinished. On a 
summer day, go from .Liverpool to London by the wa} r of Chester 
and Warwick and Oxford, as so many do, and 3'ou will see spread 
before you a country which may be compared to a polished gem. 
Those fields, those hedges, those village streets, those railway 
tracks — how perfect they are ! Everything is so finished that 
there seems nothing more to do. And if } t ou will stop at Oxford, 
and ramble through that famous university town, you will receive 
a like impression in regard to the noble institutions embodied there 
in stone ; you will learn what the Anglo-Saxon race can do in the 
building-up and finishing of a college. It is true, as has been said 
to-night, that a university never ceases to grow. But in that 
ancient city we look to achievement rather than process : we 
behold the products of a thousand years of growth ; we pass from 
one to another of this group of colleges, bearing the honored 
names of men who made great sacrifices for education and reli- 
gion ; and the} 7 suggest to us — to the laborers in the unfinished 
East, to the educators and preachers of the yet more unfinished 
West — what we and our successors niay do. 

Speaking of the great English university. I am reminded of an 
incident belonging to my own college days. Our president was a 
West Point man, with a good deal of military dignity and con- 



50 "WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 

sciousness of greatness, and not a little fussiness superadded. 
Our college was young and weak, but the president believed in it 
mightily, and cherished a lofty ambition in its behalf. One day 
we were visited by an Oxford gentleman, who, after being duly 
" shown around, " turned to our president and said, "We have 
heard of your college in England," to which came instantly a 
reply wherein, with heroic courage and boldness, our little insti- 
tution was placed on a level with the greatest of universities. 
"Yes," said our President; "and we have heard of Oxford — 
we have heard of Oxford." I offer this, Mr. Chairman, as an 
example for you, and a suggestion concerning your future. Let 
such high hope and ambition be yours, and who knows what ful- 
filment will come? Let us look forward to that day when, if 
some English university gentleman rambling through the groves of 
Springfield, should say in a patronizing way, "We have heard 
of Drury College," the answer maybe given, "We, too, have 
heard of Oxford," and the parallel thus suggested not be un- 
seemly. 

But seriously, sir, why should not the friends of Christian edu- 
cation look forward to grand results in this community? Permit 
me to suggest that, in-order to secure such results, two things are 
especially necessary : to cherish a lofty ideal, and to recognize in 
the practical every- day work the law of " little by little." We 
believe these two conditions exist ; we believe that your ideal is a 
high one, and we believe that you, sir, and your colleagues are 
working faithfully amidst the ' ' small things ' ' of to-daj, with 
hearts set upon the great things of to-morrow. And let me ask 
whether you cannot find in this visit of Eastern friends such 
a guaranty of Christian cooperation as may be of great comfort 
and help to you in your incessant labors? While I have been 
hearing, to-day and this evening, about munificent gifts received 
from the East and the North, I have been cherishing a kind of 
pride in the thought that I, too, have had men in ray parish 
who rejoiced in the work of helping Western colleges. I have 
been thinking what kind of men they are — men of great economy 
and prudence, not a bit sentimental, but exceedingly matter-of- 
fact ; and it seems to me that in these very characteristics we have 
a pledge that they will not fail us in the hour of need. 

When I recall one of these men who passed away a few years 



"WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 51 

ago, at a ripe age, I am reminded of a little incident which well 
illustrates the type of character to which I have just referred. I 
called upon this senior deacon, with another prominent man of 
the parish, to ask him to head a subscription for a new church- 
edifice. Both these men had recently lost their wives, and the 
friend who went with me, being something of a sentimentalist, 
made an appeal to the other, in a shy, tentative way, based upon 
the fact of their recent bereavement. " Can you not imagine," 
he said in effect, " that those noble women, looking down upon 
us this afternoon, are interested in this matter ? Do you not sup- 
pose they would be glad to have us subscribe to the enterprise they 
talked about so much ere they left us ? ' ' Alas ! the good deacon 
was not the man to be moved by such considerations. He only 
shrugged his shoulders and replied, " We don't know much about 
that other world. ' ' A thorough-going believer, but so matter-of- 
fact ! But mark this : when the subscription-paper was laid 
before him, and the need of the church clearly set forth, this un- 
sentimental and economical man of business subscribed $25,000 
for the new house of worship, and subscribed $5,000 more in the 
name of his departed wife. Now it was this man, Mr. Chairman, 
who gave $10,000 to establish the Benedict professorship in Iowa 
College, at Grinnell ; and it was a man of very similar t3'pe, 
prudent and matter-of-fact — I mean our sainted Deacon Carter — 
who gave another $10,000 to the same institution. 

You have such men as these, sir, to rely upon. And let me 
express my conviction that our Christian colleges will have such 
men to rely on as long as they need them. You may not continue 
to find them in Connecticut, for a great change is taking place in 
the population and the ecclesiastical life of New England ; you 
maj 7 not always find them in New York and Pem^lvania for sim- 
ilar reasons ; but you will find them in Ohio and Illinois, Wiscon- 
sin and Michigan ; you will find them in Minnesota and Iowa and 
Missouri. As the great work broadens through the kt new West," 
you will find them on this western side of the Mississippi. In 
this glorious task of laying the foundations of Christian colleges, 
our boundary is the Pacific shore ; and we shall have the conse- 
crated wealth of a great nation, and of other nations, to sustain 
us in it. I bid, you then God-speed — your ideal the very high- 
est ; your motto, "Little by little." 



52 "wise m;en from the east." 

In introducing the Rev. W. B. Williams, of Charlotte, Mich., 
the general agent of Olivet College, as the next speaker, President 
Morrison took occasion to credit the speaker with the suggestion 
of this "excursion" to the South- West, which had proved so 
great a success. Mr. Williams said : — 

Olivet College to-night brings greetings and good wishes to the 
youngest in the sisterhood of Western colleges. I thank you., 
sir, for having called me out this evening, for it gives me an ex- 
cellent opportunity to tell the good people of Springfield what I 
think of you, for I have known your record, sir, and that of your 
co-workers here. Messrs. Drury and Brown, for nearly a quarter 
of a century. 

The stirring music to which we have listened to-day reminds me 
of the noble service rendered by the leader in years gone by in 
building up the Musical Department of Olivet College and in enliv- 
ening all our public exercises. I remember, too, the contagious 
enthusiasm with which S. F. Drury espoused the cause of Olivet 
in its infancy, and the liberal plans he devised for its welfare, the 
fervent prayers he offered in its behalf, and the aid rendered at a 
time when it seemed that but for that aid the enterprise would 
fail. 

I remember the time, sir, when it was with difficulty that you 
could get a ten minutes' hearing for Olivet College before the 
General Association of Michigan, and I have seen the smile of 
mingled pity and derision that pla} r ed upon the faces of the audi- 
ence as you told of the work that Olivet had done and of its plans 
for the future. It was thought that you were well-meaning 
people, and no one wished to lay a straw in your way. But men 
asked quizzically : ' ' Do those Olivet folks know what the}^ have 
undertaken? Do they know how many thousands and hundreds of 
thousands of dollars it takes to build up a college?" 

I am glad to bear witness to-night to the thorough devotion with 
which you gave j^ourself to the upbuilding of Olivet College. 
There was no service the college needed that was so distasteful to 
you that you would not render it. Few know how galling it is to 
a man of your sensitive nature to go among strangers to solicit 
funds to establish a college, and I shall not soon forget your say- 
ing that at times when on this errand you had been so despondent 
that, if it had not been for your wife and children, you thought 



"WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 53 

that in crossing the ferry you should have plunged into the 
river. 

Under your administration the standard of scholarships was 
greatly elevated and the college made a long stride in advance 
and rose rapidly in public esteem. You did a noble work there, 
and I assure you that we appreciate it, and now we rejoice and 
bid you God-speed in what you are doing to build up a Christian 
college in Missouri. 

Educators in these latter days are wont to extol the Prussian 
system of schools and State education. But the Prussian system 
gives a thoroughly Christian education. The young people there 
attend the elementary schools until they are about fourteen years 
of age. Every morning and afternoon session of these schools is 
opened and closed with singing and prayer. The pupils are re- 
quired to devote one hour every day to Christian study, commit- 
ting a portion of Scripture to memory every week, studying the 
catechism, Bible history, and the history of the Church down 
to the present time, besides committing to memory about eighty 
hymns during the time spent in these schools. 

Some nine years are spent in the gymnasia, where the range of 
study is somewhat wider than in our college course. During the 
first three years an hour every day is given to more advanced 
Christian instruction, and during the remaining six years two 
hours every week is given to these studies. Every university has 
also its theological faculty, which is supposed to contain the ablest 
defenders of the Christian faith. But we are having the Prussian 
system foisted upon us with all its Christian safeguards eliminated 
from it. Our State universities have in them no theological facul- 
ties ; Christianity loses its case in them every time, simply by 
default. It has in the faculty no advocate whose official duty it 
is to plead its cause. 

And the tendency of the times is to prohibit all devotional 
exercises and Christian instruction in our public schools of lower 
grade. Says Gov. Rice, of Massachusetts: "I lift up a warning 
voice with respect to the inadequacy and perils of our modern 
system of one-sided education, which supposes it can develop 
manhood and good citizenship out of mere brain culture." Pres- 
ident Stearns, of Amherst, says : ' ' The highest style of men can- 
not be produced without religion." 



54 "WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 

And now, if I could reach the ear of all the Christian people 
of Missouri, I would say: Stand by your Christian colleges; sus- 
tain and cheer the teachers in them by your sympathy, your 
money, and your prayers ; send to them your sons and daughters, 
and encourage your neighbors to send their sons and daughters 
to them. As you regard the welfare of your own children, the 
growth and prosperity of your churches, and the good of the 

State, STAND BY YOUR CHRISTIAN COLLEGES. 

Rev. M. M. G-. Dana, D.D., of St. Paul, Minn., was the last 
speaker. In his address he represented Carleton College, whose 
president, Rev. J. W. Strong, D.D., was prevented by ill-health 
from speaking, as well as the churches of Minnesota. Dr. Dana 
spoke substantially as follows : — 

Mr. Chairman: — I hardly know what form to give to my con- 
tribution to this ' ' symposium ' ' of the friends of Christian lear 
ing. It certainly is good to be here and to see these promiseful 
beginnings, for we little suspect what such an institution as Drury 
College is to become. Its field, its possibilities of usefulness are 
so vast, that we cannot forecast its future, nor predict how rapidly 
it is to develop. Everything in this Western country grows luxur- 
iantly and with a celerity to which the denizens of older Com- 
monwealths are utter strangers. I know somewhat of the joy 
this sendee brings to the friends and officers of this young institu- 
tion, for only last month, in Northfleld, the Mecca of Minnesota 
Congregationalists, we commemorated with glad and grateful 
hearts the decennial of Dr. Strong's presidency of Carleton Col- 
lege. The storied achievements and trials of those ten eventful 
years stirred all hearts, and helped me, with others there present, 
to realize what these young Christian colleges cost in the way of 
sacrificial service, and how invaluable they become to the cause of 
letters and religion. Think a moment of some of the facts pre- 
sented in Dr. Morrison's brief report. This institution is but 
seven years old, and yet during that short period how deep and 
extensive has been its influence. During these few years, it has 
made itself felt upon the schools of this city and vicinity ; it has 
furnished workers for these mission fields which he all about us 
and require, as more and more the}^ are coming to command, con- 
secrated and heroic men and women. Nay, reaching out beyond 



"WISE MEN FKOM THE EAST." 55 

even the limits of this princely domain, amidst which it towers as 
a light-house, it has already sent forth some who, in distant con- 
tinents and amidst heathen peoples, are preaching the Gospel of 
eternal hope and help. Are we not reminded, as we gather at 
this shrine of learning, that the best knowledge is not so much 
that which informs as that which inspires. There have been wise 
men whose ambition was great, but who walled themselves in, and 
apart from the great need}' world, and whose culture wrought not 
for human good. The wisdom which is to the heart and brain a 
propulsive force, and leads its possessor to put all his gifts and 
attainments to the service of God and man, is, after all, that 
which is most enduring and enriching. Such institutions as this 
one vindicate their popular worth and illustrate their necessity, in 
the fact that they awaken to a devoted life those who else had 
remained comparatively ignorant and useless ; they open the gate- 
ways of opportunity to those who make of knowledge a means 
wherewith to render in their day and generation a noble service. 
I wish therefore to emphasize these three things : — 
1. That Chiristian education is alone trustworthy. We ought 
not to divorce learning and religion. We cannot afford in this 
country to instruct exclusively the intellect, and leave our youth 
ignorant of the morals whose restraints and obligations are needed 
to give a right shaping to the whole life. I have no faith in edu- 
cational institutions which leave their pupils in doubt as to whether 
there be any God, and treat with disdain or consign to neglect 
the great verities of our Christian faith. I do not believe, there- 
fore, in the State providing for its youth the so-called ' k higher 
education." I question its right to do so, and I utterly distrust 
its ability, in the university it establishes, to give what I think all 
our youth require — a Christian education. 

The preeminent glory of those colleges the friends of Christian 
learning have so founded, and by generous benefactions endowed, 
is in their religious character. They are Christian, and cannot 
become atheistic or agnostic in their teaching ; and while not sec- 
tarian, they do combine knowledge and religion, the best culture 
with the Christianity which conserves and colors it. I most pro- 
foundly believe that on principle we ought to see to it, especially 
in these Western States, that we give our patronage only to Chris- 
tian colleges, and help the latter, not only by our gifts, but by 
sending to them our own sons and dauo-hters. 



56 "WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 

2. The needs of these institutions deserve more general recog- 
nition. They are dependent upon the offerings of the benevolent, 
and, unless generously cared for, will languish and fail to realize 
their great opportunities. This college deserves to be cherished 
most forcibly and pridefully — not only by this community, but 
by the Christian people of this vast Commonwealth. It will be 
increasingly the foster-mother of good common schools, and will 
prepare the best and most reliable teachers for the same. It can- 
not be otherwise than an ally of home-missions, while it may be 
counted upon to reenforce every good cause. This being true, 
such institutions should be liberally dealt with. They are not 
beggars : they are the most valuable servants of church and State. 
Their necessities are undoubtedly great, but that only attests the 
magnitude of their opportunities. Look at the field Drury Col- 
lege occupies, and you discover at a glance that on its equipment 
and endowment depends its ability to do an incalculably important 
and extending work. Its needs are after all its best appeals: 
that it requires more buildings, more instructors, is but the assur- 
ance that it has augmenting possibilities of usefulness. These 
young colleges of the West are worthy of greater sympathy, and 
should have a warmer place in our affections and far more gener- 
ous treatment at our hands. I commend to all living here, and 
all who, through this visit, may become interested in "Drury," 
to recognize, with a wise and liberal mind, its wants, and give to 
its aid with these fully in view. 

3. The help these young colleges require must be prompt as 
well as generous. We cannot safely delaj- the work of fitting at 
once, for varied and the best of educational work, such institu- 
tions as this one. Large bequests are alwa3 T s acceptable, but 
large gifts from the living are better. We like not to put a 
premium on the death-list and encourage college officers to note 
funeral announcements in Eastern papers : but if financial help 
comes only through legacies, something akin to this is the result. 
The most intelligent and timely assistance is that afforded by living 
men who can enjoy and look after their benefactions. More than 
this : now is the time of extreme need with these young colleges, 
and now is the time when liberal gifts should be made. I trust 
there is to come to all friends of collegiate institutions in the 
West a new recognition of the urgency of their necessities, and 



" WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 57 

then a readiness to do all that is possible at once. Five thousand 
dollars to Drury or Carleton College now will go further, effect 
more, than double that sum a decade hence. Just this gives 
importunateness to the pleas of Western college presidents ; they 
cannot wait ; what they ask for is what is imperatively needed at 
once. 

Wise and generous givers will recognize this stress and respond 
accordingly. This is the time for building, for putting in founda- 
tions ; and it can no more be delayed than can seed-sowing when 
spring has returned and the soil has grown soft. Now is the hour 
of opportunhry and obligation, and its message to all with large 
hearts and means is : "That thou doest, do quickly." 

Mr. Chairman, before I take my seat I wish to propose to those 
here from abroad that we raise $1,000, to be put into the form of 
a scholarship, and become a memorial of this visit, with its varied 
scenes and experiences. 

Dr. Sturtevant, Assistant Moderator of the National Council, 
then took the chair, relieving President Morrison of the embar- 
rassment of seeming to direct in the unexpected business sug- 
gested by Dr. Dana. Dr. Dana's proposal was put to vote and 
passed unanimously. 

Rev. E. G. Porter, of Lexington, Massachusetts ; Rev. A. H. 
Bradford, of Montclair, New Jersey ; and Rev. Robert West, of 
St. Louis, were appointed a committee to take in charge the 
securing of the $1,000 for the " National Council Scholarship " in 
Drury College. A good portion of this sura was secured from 
members of the Council on the spot, and the committee were 
instructed to pursue the matter until the whole sura should be 
secured. 

President Morrison then resumed the chair, and the assemblage 
was dismissed with the benediction by the Rev. Henry Bates, 
General Agent of Doane College, Crete, Nebraska. 

During the evening Rev. F. W. Beecher, of Wellsville, New 
York, made an excellent speech, of which we have no report. He 
mentioned the fact that he was born under the shadow of Illinois 
College, at Jacksonville, of which his father (Dr. Edward 
Beecher) was then President ; that he knew the difficulties and 
trials which beset the planting of colleges in the West ; and that 



58 "WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 

those who did this service for humanity and the Church of Christ, 
always bearing the burden and heat of the day, had his warm 
S} 7 mpathy. He also highly complimented the quality of the work 
of instruction which he had seen was being done in Drury Col- 
lege, alluding in particular to rare excellence in the department 
of painting and drawing. 

Hon. E. G. Benedict, the editor of the Free Press, Burlington, 
Vermont, was called early in the evening for a speech. He had 
not then arrived, and the Chair, not recognizing his later entrance, 
supposed him absent and did not repeat the call. He was to 
have spoken for Hon. Frederick Billings, unavoidably detained 
from the Council, as well as for himself. 



"WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 59 



TO VINITA, WICHITA, AND NEW MEXICO. 



The next morning the visitors took the early train for Vinita, 
in the Indian Territory, accompanied by a number of officers of 
the college and citizens of Springfield. The snow-storm, which 
had ceased at night-fall, now returned and continued very heavy 
all the way to Vinita, shutting out from view of the travellers the 
country through which they passed, and shutting them in on 
themselves for relief from the tedium of the long ride. Arriving 
at Vinita at two o'clock p. m., an hour was devoted to dinner and 
to examining the excellent " home missionary " work being done 
there by Pastor Scroggs. The visitors left enough money with 
Mr. S. to lift the debt on his chapel and complete the edifice. 
Returning to Springfield for supper, they pursued their journey 
to St. Louis and their homes in the distant East. 

At Seneca, a village on the line between Missouri and the In- 
dian Territory, the visitors met several Modoc Indians, among 
the rest, ''Scar- faced Charley." famous in the bloody fight of 
the Lava Beds in Oregon. They thought it prudent to supply 
themselves with arms before entering the precincts of the Indian 
country ; so each minister returned to the train from his interview 
with the Modocs with bows and arrows of very warlike aspect in 
their hands. Col. Dyer, the agent for these Indians, sent a 
"suit" of this aboriginal armor to the distinguished pastor of 
Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, New York, by the hand of Rev. F. 
W. Beecher. 

At Peirce City, Dr. Lyman Abbott, President Strong, Editor 
Howard and others left the party for a trip through Kansas to 
Wichita, and over the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway 
to ' ew Mexico. Others stopped at Peirce City to do some 
further " missionary work" for the church there, and to visit the 
noted lead mines at Joplin, Missouri, the next morning. 



60 "WISE MEN EROM THE EAST. 



^OTES. 



Mention is made on an earlier page that our name, "Drury 
College," embalms the memory of a noble young man cut off 
from a life of great promise by an untimely death. The chief 
building of the College, "Walter Fairbanks Hall," in like manner 
commemorates the short life and early death of another young 
man of rare beauty of person and great nobility of character. 
Walter Fairbanks, only son and child of Charles Fairbanks, Esq., 
formerly of St. Johnsbury, Vt., died at Tunbridge Wells, near 
London, England, in the autumn of 1872, at the very moment 
preparations were first making for this college-founding. 

During the return trip from Vinita, Rev. W. P. Paxson, of St. 
Louis, the very efficient agent of the Sunda} 7 School Union for 
the South- West, gave an instructive talk to the visitors on " The 
Indian Question" and the opening of the Territory to settlement. 

The extremely inclement weather — the thermometer register- 
ing from 10° to 15° below zero the next morning — prevented the 
visitors from gaining much knowledge of the country which they 
traversed. They found their compensation in delightful fellow- 
ship with each other during the long day. 

No accident happened to the ' ' Excursion, ' ' from the time it 
left St. Louis until the return of all the party, more serious than 
detention of trains by the storm, and the illness of one gentleman, 
who had received injury on the train from New York to St. Louis. 
For this exemption from casualty by wreck and frost, all con- 
cerned rendered devout gratitude to Him who governs "the 
powers of the air ' ' and controls the hidden forces of steam and 
iron. 

For the many inconveniences to which the guests of the Col- 
lege were subjected, some unavoidable from the multitude of 
the party, some the result of inexperience on the part of those in 
charge, the College authorities express their profound regret. 



"WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 61 

How the people of Springfield valued this visit of distinguished 
clergymen, scholars, philanthropists, and patriots to their homes, 
was well shown in the columns of the local newspapers of that 
week, an extract from which is here given : — 

" Springfield has never before, probably, received a company of 
guests who represented so largely the wealth, the spirit of prog- 
ress, the education, and the benevolence of the country as in 
this instance. They have left their blessing behind them ; we send 
ours after them on their swift retreat to the East, the North, and 
the West." 

A prominent citizen of Springfield declared that he heard more 
good public speaking on the " Corner- Stone " day than during all 
his previous life. 

ECHOES. 

A Massachusetts pastor writes : ' ' No trip that I have ever taken 
has proved more pleasurable or profitable." 

A noble lady, who, with her husband, has been one of the 
earliest and most munificent of the many friends of the college : 
" I enjoyed the day at Springfield, and the remembrance gives me 
grateful pleasure that so many strong hearts and hands have here 
been brought in contact with the work to which you have given 
your life." 

A Connecticut pastor: "I want to express my sense of the 
importance of the enterprise which you have undertaken, and my 
appreciation of the self-sacrificing devotion to it manifested by 
you and your associates, and I inclose $100 to be applied where 
most needed." 

One pastor in the far " Down East " : "I believe with you con- 
cerning the work Drury is doing and is to do for the great South- 
West. Indian Territory is to be colonized by whites ; Arkansas 
and your own State will share with Kansas in the overpouring of 
people from the Eastern and Southern States ; New Mexico and 
Arizona will pour their children Eastward in many streams in 
search of education ; and you and your graduates will be more 
likely than any other college folk to meet and modify those 
streams. Texas, too, will be open to you. What may you not 
do, with a continuance of the faith and diligence which have char- 
acterized your child-years." 



62 "WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 

Another in Massachusetts: "I told my people yesterday of 
your good work; no words can easily exaggerate it." 

The gentleman from Connecticut whose illness prevented attend- 
ance at the public exercises at Springfield : "I have a sympathy 
for those men who are holding the outposts for truth and for God, 
such as will influence me in all the future." 

A writer in the Congregation! (list : " The best part of the Coun- 
cil was in Springfield and the Indian Territory. There we had 
something practical." 

A Vermont editor: "No amount of cold can chill the glow 
with which delegates will remember the kindness and hospitality 
of the citizens of Springfield and St. Louis." 

A Hartford, Conn., editor: " The whole excursion was a grand 
undertaking." 

Another editor: " When Drury College, or any other college in 
the new West, has a bigger day thau this, may we be there to 
see it." 

A St. Louis pastor: "I thank God for the success of the excur- 
sion. The citizens of Springfield did splendidly. I was proud 
of them. Verily, they have their reward in the gratitude and 
good- will of so many good people." ' 

"The career of Drury College at Springfield, Mo., showed 
what can be accomplished by a ' one-horse Western college ' in 
seven years. It showed how the whole grade of education 
through a vast section of new country can be raised over 100 
per cent in that period of time, as evidenced by the increase of 
teachers' salaries and the higher grade of the studies ; it was 
shown that these little far-away Western colleges can supply us 
with foreign missionaries, as Drury has given three already." 

Many more such "echoes" have been heard here, but these 
must suffice. 



"WISE MEN FROM THE EAST. 



63 



REGISTER 



OF 



THE WISE ME^ FEOM THE EAST. 



Eev. E. G. Porter, Lexington, 
Mass. 

Hon. A. C. Barstow and wife, 
Providence, R. I. 

Rev. Winfield Scott Hawkes, South 
Hadley Palls, Mass. 

Rev. Dwight Whitney Marsh, Hay- 
denville, Mass. 

Rev. James Edgar Snowden, Oska 
loosa, Iowa. 

Rev. Russell T. Hall, Mt. Vernon, 
Ohio. 

Rev. Wm. M. Brooks, D.D., Presi- 
dent of Tabor College, Iowa. 

Rev. Lavellette Perrin, D.D., Wol- 
cottville, Conn. 

Rev. George B. Spalding, D.D., 
Dover, N. H. 

Rev. Joseph Anderson, D. D., Wa- 
terbury, Conn. 

Rev. H. M. Tenney, Wallingford, 
Conn. 

Rev. D. A. Campbell, Pine River, 
Wis. 

G. Henry Whitcomb, Esq., Wor- 
cester, Mass. 

Wm. J. Clark, St. Louis, Mo. 

Rev. George E. Freeman, Abington, 
Mass. 

Rev. James W. Strong, D.D., Pres- 
ident of Carleton College, North- 
field, Minn. 

Rev. E. Frank Howe, Newtonville, 
Mass. 

Rev. George B. Safford, D.D., Bur- 
lington, Vt. 



Rev. Wm. H. Moore, D.D., and 
wife, Hartford, Conn. 

Rev. Richard Cordley, D.D., Em- 
poria, Kan. 

Deacon Samuel L. Boynton, Biclde- 
ford, Me. 

Rev. Albert H. Currier, Lynn, 
Mass. 

Hon. S. M. Edgell and wife, St. 
Louis, Mo. 

Simeon Gilbert, editor of the Ad- 
vance, Chicago, 111. 

Daniel F. Kaime and wife, St. 
Louis, Mo. 

Rev. Henry W. Jones, St. Johns- 
bury, Yt. 

Rev. G. A. Rockwood, Rensselaer 
Falls, New York. 

Rev. Lyman Abbott, D.D., editor 
of Ch?-istian Union, New York. 

Rev. Cyrus Hamlin, Council Bluffs, 
Iowa. 

Herbert M. Dixon and wife, 
Smyrna, N. Y. 

J. K. Scarborough, Payson, 111. 

Rev. W. G. Pierce, Champaign, 111. 

Hon. B. C. Beach, Champaign, 111. 

Rev. Stanley E. Lathrop, Macon, 
Ga. 

Dea. John C. Plumb and wife, Mil- 
ton, Wis. 

Rev. C. H. Daniels, Cincinnati, O. 

Rev. Josiah Strong, Sandusky, 0. 

Rev. W. D. Herrick, Gardner, Mass. 

Rev. Chas. C. Johnson, Smyrna, 
N. Y. 



64 



WISE MEN FROM THE EAST. 



Joseph Carew, Esq., manufacturer, 
South Hadley Falls, Mass. 

Rev. Samuel W. Boardman, D.D., 
Sterling, 111. 

Rev. Jas. W. West, Onarga, 111. 

Rev. Edward Chase, Biclcleford, Me. 

Rev. Leavitt H. Hallock, West 
Winsted, Conn. 

Rev. James G. Bonar, New Mil- 
ford, Conn. 

Rev. James W. Grush, Lockport, 
N. Y. 

Hon. George B. Barrows, Frye- 
burg, Me. 

Rev. Charles Gerrish, St. Charles, 
Minn. 

Col. A. B. Lawrence, Warsaw, 
N. Y. 

Rev. Jas. B. Gregg, Hartford, Ct. 

Prof. Henry E. Sawyer, State Nor- 
mal School of Connecticut, New 
Britain, Ct. 

Rev. Wm. Henry Atkinson, Orch- 
ard, Iowa. 

Rev. John S. Whitman, Chatham, 
Ohio. 

Rev. H. S. Williams, Louisiana, 
Mo. 

Rev. Geo. L. Roberts, Fremont, 111. 

Rev. J. M. Sturtevant, Jr., D.D., 
Grinnell, Iowa. 

Rev. Mason Noble, Jr., Sheffield, 
Mass. 

Rev. C. L. Goodell, D.D., St. Louis, 
Mo. 

Gilbert Mosely, editor of Beligious 
Herald, Hartford, Conn. 

Rev. Thomas A. Emerson, Brain- 
tree, Mass. 

Rev. JohnH. Shay, McLean, 111. 

E. T. Grabill, Esq., editor, Green- 
ville, Mich. 

Rev. Chas. J. Hill, Middletown, 
Conn. 

Rev. Robert Quaife, Lake Mills, 
Wis. 



Rev. D. Sebastian Jones, Alexan- 
dria, Ohio. 
Rev. H. H. Hamilton, Hinsdale, 

N. H. 
Hon. Samuel J. Sinclair, Exeter, 

N. H. 
Prof. Hiram Mead, D.D., and wife, 

Oberlin, Ohio. 
Rev. B. F. Bradford, Darien, Ct. 
Rev. Chas. H. Pope, Thorn aston, 

Me. 
Rev. Charles C. Cragin, McGregor, 

Iowa. 
J. B. Thayer, Esq., Spring Valley, 

Minn. 
Henry F. Wing and wife, Grafton, 

Mass. 
B. C. Hard wick, Roxbury, Mass. 
Rev. Fred. W. Beecher, Wellsville, 

N. Y. 
Rev. Alexander D. Stowell, Rich- 
ford, N. Y. 
Rev. Henry Bates, Doane College, 

Crete, Neb. 
Rev. F. A. Johnson, Chester, N. J. 
Rev. M. O. Harrington, Kidder, Mo. 
Rev. C. S. Smith, D.D., editor of 

Vermont Chronicle, Montpelier, 

Vermont. 
Rev. L. P. Spelman, Covert, Mich. 
Rev. F. E. Clark, Portland, Me. 
Rev. Wm. S. Hazen, Northfield, Vt. 
Rev. G. S. F. Savage, D.D., and 

wife, Chicago, 111. 
Rev. P. B. West, Lamar, Mo. 
Rev. G. S. Dickerman, Lewiston, 

Maine. 
Rev. W. Kincaid, D.D., Oberlin, O. 
Rev. Allan McLean, Litchfield, Ct. 
Rev. George D. Hoocl, Minneapolis, 
Minn. 
Rev. M. McG. Dana, D.D., St. Paul, 

Minn. 
J. L. H. Cobb and wife, Lewiston, 

Maine. 
Rev. J. J. Hough, Antwerp, N. Y. 



WISE MEN FROM THE EAST. 



65 



Rev. A. P. Johnson, Platteville, 

Wis. 
F. W. Sprague, Esq., Duke Centre, 

Pa. 
S. A. Wallace, Pay son, 111. 
Henry F. Scarborough, Payson, 111. 
Rev. L. P. Rose, Indianapolis, Ind. 
Rev. Robert McCune, Toledo, Ohio. 
Rev. J. Newton Brown, Charlotte, 

Mich. 
F. B. Knowles and wife, Worcester, 

Mass. 
Mrs. C. H. Hutchins, Worcester, 

Mass. 
Douglas Putnam and wife, Harmar, 

Ohio. 
Rev. Lawrence Armsby, Council 

Grove, Kan. 
Rev. Thomas Robie, Plymouth, 

Mass. 
Rev. A. A. Cressman, Albion, Neb. 
Rev. H. Bross, Crete, Neb. 
Geo.. E. Marsh, Lynn, Mass. 
Geo. R. Gage, Woburn, Mass. 
Rev. Henry Hoddle, Garfield, Kan. 
Rev. Roland B. Howard, Boston 

editor of the Chicago Advance, 

Rockport, Mass. 
Dea. C. G. Marsh, Lynn, Mass. 
Rev. Charles V. Speer and wife, 

Pittsfield, Mass. 
Rev. Stewart Sheldon, Yankton, 

Dakota. 
Rev. Arthur Chester, Onarga, 111. 
Rev. W. D. Williams, Sterling, Kan. 
Hon. J. E. Sargent, ex-Chief Jus- 
tice of Supreme Court, Concord, 
N. H. 
Rev. Henry M. Grant, Middlebor- 

ough, Mass. 



Rev. James Morris Whiton, LL.D., 

Newark, N. J. 
Rev. Charles E. Harwood, Orleans, 

Mass. 
Rev. Frank Russell, Mansfield, O. 
Rev. John Colby, Fitzwilliam, N. H. 
Rev. J. C. Plumb and wife, Brook- 
field, Mo. 
Rev. J. H. Harwood, D.D., and 

wife, Hannibal, Mo. 
Rev. J. F. Loba, Kewanee, 111. 
Rev. L. 0. Brastow, Burlington, Vt. 
Hon. E. G. Benedict, Burlington, Vt. 
Geo. M. Lane, Esq., editor of 

Tribune, Detroit, Mich. 
Rev. Leroy Warren, Lansing, Mich. 
Rev. W. P. Paxson, St. Louis, Mo. 

Rev. H. W. George, , . 

H. F. Scarborough, Payson, 111. 
Rev. W. F. Martin, Joplin, Mo. 
Hon. J. 0. Couch and wife, Mass. 
Rev. Geo. C. Adams, Alton, 111. 
Rev. J. C. Davenport, Bridgeport, 

Ct. 
Rev. C. H. Daniels, Cincinnati, 0. 
Rev. W. B. Williams, Charlotte, 

Mich. 
Rev. J. J. Woolley, D.D., Paw- 
tucket, R. I. 
Rev. Edward Morris, Caddo, I. T. 
Rev. J. W. Cooper, New Britain, Ct. 
Lucius Rowe, Fairhaven, Ct. 
Rev. P. S. Boyd and wife, Ames- 

hwrj, Mass. 
Hon. D. C. Bell, Minneapolis, Minn. 
Rev. R. A. Beard, Brainard, Minn. 
Rev. H. W. Torrens, New York. 
Rev. A H. Bradford, Montclair, N. J. 
Rev. Robert West, St. Louis, Mo. 
Rev. C. R. Fitts, Slaterville, R. I. 



It is probable that the above list of our Eastern visitors is some- 
what incomplete. It is, however, as nearly accurate as is now 
practicable. 



66 "WISE MEN FROM THE EAST. 1 



CO^sTDITIO^ A^TD XEEDS OF DEUEY 
COLLEGE. 



So many inquiries are made concerning the resources, progress, 
and needs of the College, that it is deemed best to add here a 
brief statement : 

Resources. 

The College grounds include near thirty acres. On this area 
three buildings have been erected at a cost, including grading, 
fencing, and furnishing, of fully $50,000. The grounds should 
at once be increased to about fifty acres !>y securing a tract that 
juts in on our present possessions. The posession of this tract 
will soon be essential to the prosperity of the institution. 

Our endowment, including scholarships, amounts now to about 
$65,000. These permanent funds bear interest at from six to 
ten per centum — the average being less than eight. 

The library contains now (March, 1881) 12,000 bound books 
and 13,000 phamphlets — including duplicates in both cases. The 
department of Natural Historj- has beginnings of valuable collec- 
tions, including 1,870 specimens in botany, 2,230 in zoology, 300 
fossils, and 250 minerals. We have serviceable, though scait, 
apparatus for illustation in chemistry, physics, biology, and mathe- 
matics, but next to nothing in astronom} 7 . Casts, models, etc., 
have been recently secured for the department of Painting and 
Drawing, where very excellent work is being done. 

Annual Expenses. 

The expenses of the College for the current year, including 
repairs, taxes, salaries, etc., except for agencies, will be about 
$10,000. The salary of the President is $1,500; that of each 



4 * WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 67 

instructor varies from $500 to $1,000, except that one (Dr. Flan- 
ner) serves the college without charge. We pay our Treasurer 
$150. Our salary account will be increased next year $1,000 to 
$1,500. 

The New Chapel. 

Opposite the title-page appears a cut of the Chapel whose 
corner-stone the " Council " assisted in laying November 16, 1880, 
taken from the architect's drawing. For this the College has in 
hand (including that already expended on the work in progress) 
$30,000, of which Mr. Frederick Marquand furnished $5,000 and 
Mrs. Valeria G-. Stone $25,000. The edifice, when completed, is 
expected to be called " Stone Chapel." We hope to have the use 
of the building before the close of 1881. Hon. A. C. Barstow, of 
Providence, R. I., is to furnish the heating apparatus — an offering 
made on the day of laying the corner-stone. The bell for the tower 
was given on the same daj^ by jointly G. Henry Whitcomb, Esq., 
and F. B. Knowles, Esq., of Worcester, Mass. When completed, 
"Stone Chapel" will serve many important educational and relig- 
ious wants of the College and the community long felt. 

Wants. 

The wants of a growing college are confessedly insatiable. 
But it may not be out of place to mention some of those more 
particularly pressing at the present time. We must push our 
endowment up to $150,000 without delay. Till that point is 
reached we shall be compelled to be annual solicitors at the doors 
of our friends. The sum of $20,000 will endow a professorship. 
Just now we particularly need that sum for the professorship of 
Normal Training, which ought to be instituted next autumn. A 
Dormitoiy for young men is a pressing need, to cost anywhere 
from $5,000 to $25,000. Scholarships yielding an income of 
$100 to $200 are greatly needed for the aid of bright and prom- 
ising young men and women, who otherwise cannot obtain the 
advantages of a liberal education. Amherst College had a Bene- 
ficiary Fund of $50,000, it is said, before she had any consider- 
able endowment otherwise. This large fund, attracting to it 
candidates for the ministry and other students of limited means, 



68 "WISE MEN FROM THE EAST." 

is probably one of the causes of the almost unexampled growth 
and usefulness of that distinguished college. The Christian pa- 
triot of the East can hardly put his money to a nobler use than in 
furnishing similar aid to promising young men and women in the 
South- West who want to gain a good education at Drury College. 



" WISE MEN" FEOM THE EAST." 69 



OFFICEBS OF DEUEY COLLEGE 



BOARD OF TRUSTEES. 

NATHAN J. MORRISON, D.D., President Springfield. 

WILLIAM H. WILLCOX, D.D., LL.D. . Maiden, Mass. 

JAMES S. GARLAND, A.M ; St. Louis. 

CHARLES E. HARWOOD, A.M. * Springfield. 

EDWIN T. ROBBERSON, M.D Springfield. 

CHARLES SHEPPARD, Esq Springfield. 

CARLOS S. GREELEY, Esq. . , St. Louis. 

Hon. SAMUEL P. DRURY . . , Olivet, Mich. 

Hon. JOHN W. LISENBY Springfield. 

T. BLONVILLE HOLLAND, Esq Springfield 

JAMES RICHARDSON, Esq St. Louis. 

CONSTANS L. GOODELL, D.D St. Louis. 

Hon. STEPHEN M. EDGELL , ... St. Louis. 



EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 

J. W. LISENBY, Chairman. 
T. B. HOLLAND, C. E. HARWOOD, E. T. ROBBERSON, 

G. M. JONES, C. SHEPPARD, N. J. MORRISON. 

GEORGE A. C. WOOLLEY, Secretary and Treasurer. 

JERE C. CRAVENS, Esq., Counsel. 

Gen. S. CADWALLADER, General Agent. 



70 



FACULTY. 

NATHAN J. MORRISON, D.D., President, 
Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy. 

• HARRIETT E. OHLEN, A.B., 

Principal of the Ladies' Department. 

PAUL ROULET, A.M., 

Professor of Mathematics and French. 

THOMAS U. FLANNER, A.M., M.D., 

Professor of Anatomy and Physiology. 

ALEXANDER B. BROWN, A.M., 

Professor of Music and Elocution. 

OLIVER BROWN, A.M., 

Professor of Latin. 

GEORGE B. ADAMS. A.M., 

Professor of History and English Literature. 

EDWARD M. SHEPARD, 

Professor of Natural Science and Chemistry. 

EDWARD P. MORRIS, A.B., 

Professor of Greek and Instructor in Physics. 

FREDERICK A. HALL, A.B., 

Principal of the Preparatory Department, 

NELLIE G. WILLCOX, 

Instructor in German. 

CLARA J. HATCH, 

Instructor in Painting and Drawing. 

GEORGE B. ADAMS, A.M., 

Librarian. 

PAUL ROULET, A.M., 

Secretary to the Faculty. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



029 923 649 3 



